The Justice Department on Tuesday accused House Democrats of shopping for a friendly federal judge in its effort to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify about potential obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump.
In a new court filing, the Justice Department dinged the House Judiciary Committee for “attempting to game the system” by seeking to formally link its McGahn suit to a separate effort to access former special counsel Robert Mueller’s grand jury evidence.
Democrats say the cases are related because they are both connected to an ongoing “impeachment investigation” that could result in an effort to recommend Trump’s ouster. And tying the cases together could help expedite them, they argued.
But the Justice Department said House Democrats undercut their own argument for haste by waiting three months to file a lawsuit against McGahn, who refused to testify after the White House claimed he was “absolutely immune” and directed him to refuse to cooperate with Congress.
“For one thing, the committee’s desire for rapid adjudication rings hollow given that the committee waited until August to file suit over former counsel McGahn’s testimony despite being formally advised of the former counsel’s absolute immunity from compelled congressional testimony on May 20, 2019,” the filing states.
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11.29.2024