House Democrats to make it easier to take White House to court
By Jeremy Herb, Katelyn Polantz and Manu Raju, CNN
Updated 11:27 AM ET, Thu June 6, 2019
(CNN)House Democrats are planning to vote next week to empower committees to go to court to enforce their subpoenas, a move that will give committee chairmen a powerful tool to hold officials in contempt while bypassing the House floor.
The plan is likely to expedite Democrats' efforts to fight the Trump administration in court over their subpoenas and could also help vulnerable Democratic lawmakers avoid repeated contempt votes on the House floor, although there are also concerns about implications of the precedent that's being set.
The Democrats' resolution next week to hold Attorney General William Barr and former White House Counsel Don McGahn in contempt will also include language stating that committees can move to hold officials in contempt of Congress, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said this week.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler pushed for the move in recent weeks as House leadership decided to wait to hold a floor vote on contempt for Barr until they could package officials together. Now committees themselves would be empowered to use civil contempt citations to go to court to enforce their subpoena.
more
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/06/politics/contempt-of-congress-vote/index.html