A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a congressional subpoena seeking former White House counsel Don McGahn’s testimony before Congress, ruling that the House has the right to bring suits …
A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a congressional subpoena seeking former White House counsel Don McGahn’s testimony before Congress, ruling that the House has the right to bring suits to enforce its subpoenas. Judges of the full D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 7–2 to overturn a divided panel opinion from February that found that the House lacked standing to seek judicial enforcement of the McGahn subpoena. “The Committee, acting on behalf of the full House of Representatives, has shown that it suffers a concrete and particularized injury when denied the opportunity to obtain information necessary to the legislative, oversight, and impeachment functions of the House, and that its injury would be redressed by the order it seeks from the court. The separation of powers and historical practice objections presented here require no different result,” Judge Judith Rogers wrote in the majority opinion (pdf). The ruling is a victory for Congress, who has been underscoring the importance of being able to enforce its subpoenas in order to carry out its legislative and oversight responsibilities. But the court also allowed McGahn to continue challenging the subpoena on other grounds. This effectively means McGahn would not have to testify while his case plays out in court. The Justice Department (DOJ), who is representing McGahn in the case, said in a statement to The Epoch Times that they intend to “vigorously” challenge the subpoena on those other grounds. “While we strongly disagree with the standing ruling in McGahn, the en banc court properly recognized that we have additional threshold grounds for dismissal of both cases, and we intend to vigorously press those arguments before the panels hearing those cases,” DOJ spokesperson Kerri Kupec said. McGahn, who was viewed as a key witness in then-special counsel’s Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, was subpoenaed by the committee in April 2019 to provide documents and appear before lawmakers as part of the investigation into alleged obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump—something that Mueller failed to establish in his investigation. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
