Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised to prevent State Department officials with knowledge of the President’s pressure campaign against Ukraine from testifying before the House, according to a Tuesday letter from the secretary.
Thus adding to the list of impeachable offenses…
This ought to press the House to move to invoke “inherent contempt”. Better work on converting those basement conference rooms into cells.
He wants subpoenas? Fine, send them out. I assume he’ll also cover the costs for these people to lawyer up out of his own pocket? /s
Here we go, the first attempt at total blockage of any and all testimony and evidence production. As expected, it’s based on no legal standing, only on bluster and lies, and it ignores Congress’ power of oversight, especially in the case of impeachment. It can’t stand…if this was Schiff’s committee he would immediately take it to them hard to force testimony, I’m not sure what will happen here with Engel though, but hopefully he does the same. And, maybe some of them will show up anyways, because they are the ones who will be punished for refusing to testify.
Democrats should also make a big deal about this, and call it “more cover up” and more evidence that the Ukranian phone call was illegal. Hammer the administration hard, show they are hiding something, that’s the way to make them seem guilty.
Can you spell ‘Congressional oversight’ Sec. Pompeo?
Have you ever heard of the phrase ‘co-equal branches of government’ or perhaps the phrase ‘separation-of-powers’ rings a bell?
They could add confinement facilities by building cages on the lawn of the Capitol.
Obstruction of Justice.
Pompeo couldn’t have made it any easier. Start with impeaching Pompeo (should be a quick vote) and refer it to the DoJ for prosecution. Nothing is going to happen under Barr, but it would be the basis of Day 1 indictments under the next Dem AG.
Paging the Office of Legal Counsel, Office of Legal Counsel to the white courtesy telephone please.
I’m sure they’ll puke up something for faux air cover soon enough.
Now that Pelosi is all in, and if reports were true about her intolerance of Lewandowski’s performance, let’s see some real teeth in a contempt charge. At this point, stonewalling is not a smart move and strikes me as serious desperation. Pompeo isn’t stupid (I know, bar is low) but if they feel the need to do this NOW, it’s bad stuff.
We’ve got to cut these fuckers off at the knees.
Question, what could happen to a witness who testifies and reveals executive conversations that could be covered under executive privilege? Could they be sued? Could they face monetary penalties? Could their testimony be buried?
I liked this take from rawstory coverage, h/t denicio:
Well, its now Schiffs or Pelosi turn to move a chess piece on the board.
I see the Trump admin like those Raptors in Jurassic Park. Testing the fence for weaknesses.
They are testing the Dems for weaknesses here. If they find one…they will exploit it at break neck speed.
Mike Plumpeo shows his cards…
The two people who know the most don’t work for you anymore, Pompeo, and are more than willing to testify. So good luck with that.
Any testimony would be a disasters, so they have no choice.
Vis-a vis Josh’s raising the long shot possibility that Pompeo is the whistleblower:
Nothing says ‘guilty’ like a reaction akin to that of the current occupant.
Cages? I’m thinking punishment stocks.
Subpoena Pompeo now and arrest him when he doesn’t show–then do the same for anyone else who refuses.
He added that the State Department “would be in further contact with the Committee in the near future as we obtain further clarity on these matters.”
If the phone don’t ring, you’ll know it’s me.
