House Dems say Trump lawyer 'contradicts' DOJ in McGahn lawsuit

Source: Politico | January 23, 2020 | Darren Samuelsohn

The Democrats’ counsel flagged to the U.S. Court of Appeals comments made during the impeachment trial.

House Democrats on Thursday night flagged to a federal appeals court panel comments made earlier this week by President Donald Trump’s lawyers during the Senate impeachment trial in hopes it can spur a win in a pending case that could open a spigot of new information in their bid to remove the president.

The two-page letter from the House’s top lawyer brings to the attention of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit remarks made by Trump’s personal attorney Jay Sekulow on the Senate floor questioning why Democrats hadn’t tried to secure testimony in court from a key former White House aide — rather than push ahead with impeachment.

Sekulow’s comment, House Counsel Douglas Letter wrote, runs counter to one of the central arguments the Justice Department has made that federal judges should not get involved in disputes between Congress and the executive branch.

“President Trump’s arguments in the impeachment trial contradict DOJ’s assertion in this case that the Committee may not seek to enforce its subpoenas in court,” Letter said.

A three-judge panel from the D.C. Circuit is expected to rule any day now in a case involving the House Judiciary Committee’s monthslong fight to subpoena testimony from Don McGahn, the former White House counsel. McGahn served as a star witness in the Russia inquiry, meeting for 30 hours with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators and sharing details about Trump’s efforts to stymie and kill the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

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