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House calls on court to uphold congressional subpoena power over Mark Meadows [1]
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Date: 2022-09-08
Meadows courted a contempt of Congress vote by the House and a contempt referral to the Department of Justice followed, though the Department did not take up the matter. Prosecutors handling contempt of Congress charges against onetime Trump adviser Peter Navarro indicated in court recently they pursued charges against Navarro because unlike Meadows, Navarro did not cooperate at all.
An attorney for Meadows, George Terwilliger, did not immediately return a request for comment to Daily Kos on Thursday.
In court Wednesday, House of Representatives General Counsel Doug Letter asked presiding U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols—a Trump appointee—to render a decision that would potentially set a significant legal precedent: He asked Nichols to rule that former advisers to a U.S. president are not given absolute immunity once that president leaves office.
This became a thorny matter for Nichols.
The judge, according to The Washington Post, said he was “frustrated” because he felt that the House could have simply relied on the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause to have Meadows’ lawsuit attempting to quash the subpoena tossed out. The clause bars lawsuits against legislators conducting official legislative business.
Letter agreed that invoking the clause would have made their case “iron clad,” but he explained that the House was actually more interested in having the court parse out the finer details on qualified versus absolute immunity for former officials instead of just relying on a catch-all in the Speech and Debate Clause.
A more thorough ruling about absolute immunity powers—or lack thereof—of former aides to former presidents would force the court to unwind Meadows’ position in more depth. And it could also reestablish congressional authority in these scenarios and instill clearer boundaries around the separation of powers.
White House aides, Letter argued, should not be permitted to flatly refuse cooperation when it is compelled.
The impact a ruling from Nichols could have on this, of course, remains to be seen. Nichols said he would issue a ruling sooner rather than later, acknowledging the deadline to disband that the select committee faces at the end of this year.
Notably, The Washington Post reported that Nichols asked Meadows’ attorney if he believed absolute immunity—even if one were to assume it applied to former chiefs of staffs to former presidents—would apply equally to “non-governmental communications.”
Terwilliger said it would and per the Post, he told the judge that “’the purpose of immunity is to protect the [office of] the presidency’ from congressional interference under the Constitution’s separation of powers and that top White House aides must enjoy the same absolute protection as the president.”
The Justice Department weighed in on the matter at Nichols’ request in a brief to the court this July.
The Department of Justice argued then that Meadows could be compelled to respond to a subpoena because former high-level advisers to ex-presidents are only eligible for qualified immunity. This means immunity could be pared back only if the reason proffered to do it was strong enough. In the case of Jan. 6, the Department of Justice felt that bar had been met.
Letter said the House is not trying to force Meadows to testify before the select committee. Rather they hoped the ruling from Nichols might spur him to fulfill his “patriotic” duties and comply voluntarily. Terwillger, Politico reported, found this offensive and said Meadows was proud of his current position, not ashamed of it.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/8/2121541/-House-calls-on-court-to-uphold-congressional-subpoena-power-over-Mark-Meadows
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