Let The Stupid Don McGahn Subpoena Games Begin!

The White House told McGahn to tell Jerry Nadler to fuck off, so he did. WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

We should say at the outset that the news we have just received -- that former White House counsel Don McGahn, at the instruction of the White House, has told the House Judiciary Committee to fuck off with its subpoena for documents related to his testimony as laid outin the Mueller Report -- is not entirely unexpected. Despite the fact that McGahn has already testified for over 30 hours for Robert Mueller, which kinda sorta completely waives any legitimate "executive privilege" claims, he is at the end of the day a court-packing conservative lawyer who, despite his unwillingness to literally do the Saturday Night Massacre for Donald Trump, nonetheless has an expansive view of executive power, because most conservatives, at heart, love presidents who are authoritarian Daddy types. Hell, during the Mueller investigation ,   McGahn was the one in the White House pissed off that Trump's original lawyers were cooperating so nicely with the investigation and that they weren't invoking executive privilege.

We should also note that what's just happened with the letter McGahn's lawyer sent, which was sent attached to another letter current White House counsel Pat Cipollone also sent McGahn's lawyer today, has absolutely nothing to do with Congress's subpoena for McGahn's testimony. For the documents, the White House might have a little bit more of a leg to stand on. Maybe . Nadler would point out -- and has -- that all the documents he's requested have been turned over to investigators already , which would seem to suggest Trump's claims of executive privilege can fuck right off. But who knows?

As for McGahn's testimony, he is a private citizen and he has spilled everything to Robert Mueller already. So if McGahn tries to fight that , then we'll be in a real situation. (As if every minute of every hour of the Trump presidency hasn't been a real situation.)

Here's the letter from McGahn lawyer Bill Burck to Jerry Nadler:

Click to embiggen that if you want, but essentially Burck says he forwarded Nadler's request to the White House and (quelle surprise! ) Cipollone and Mick Mulvaney say fuck off. They also note that the Department of Justice, which is run by the biggest justice-obstructing rat of them all, Bill Barr, also agrees that fuck off. None of these facts are relevant to constitutional law in the United States of America, because the current staff of the executive branch is illegitimate and criminal.

However, what we note in this letter from Burck to Nadler is that it doesn't quite have the "fuck off" tone that you'd expect from somebody who isn't going to cooperate at all. It mentions McGahn "maintain[ing] the status quo " until the Judiciary Committee and the White House come to some sort of agreement on production of documents that Pat Cipollone contends "implicate significant Executive Branch confidentiality interests," as his letter states. (And yes, Wonkette is aware that there's a greater chance of unicorns flying out of Trump's ass or Trump having a good spelling day than there is for Congress and this current White House to agree.)

That, of course, doesn't mean Jerry Nadler won't start contempt proceedings against McGahn, like he's doing with Barr. And considering how McGahn is now a private citizen, it'd be mighty interesting to see how that played out. But at the same time, we have a feeling we'll get a sense of how cooperative McGahn is being behind the scenes if Nadler doesn't immediately move to contempt proceedings after this. McGahn, after all, faces another deadline for his testimony, one that's coming up soon. And on that, CNN reports that according to someone "familiar with the matter," the White House hasn't said whether it's going to try to stop McGahn from testifying. (Yes, we know Trump opened his fat stupid maw hole and said he's going to block McGahn from testifying, but SPOILER BIG SURPRISE ROSEBUD IS A SLED  HE CAN'T.    )  

Robert Costa reports a bit on what the White House is really thinking with ordering McGahn not to produce documents that have already been handed over to the Mueller investigation, and surprise, it is DELAY! DELAY! DELAY!

The challenge for WH and McGahn camp, which they acknowledge privately, is that the Mueller report is *public,* so… https: //t.co/1qMVycLqEa

— Robert Costa (@Robert Costa) 1557244567.0 

Uh huh. They are just hoping they can maybe delay all this until after the 2020 election, if they're being honest, and they're not, because they never are.

So what happens now? We don't fucking know, keep your eye on the news, we are sure they will tell you. Oh wait, Wonkette R The News, so we guess just keep reading Wonkette.

[ CNN ]

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