Trump’s Unprecedented Fight to Withhold Information
President Donald Trump’s administration has declared war on congressional oversight, and the House of Representatives is fighting back—by suing in federal court to enforce its subpoenas.
I served for more than 20 years in the House’s Office of General Counsel, from 1995 to 2016. During that period, House committees issued hundreds of subpoenas to executive-branch officials. In the majority of those cases, the subpoenaed officials either complied outright or negotiated agreements with the House about the information to be provided. Only twice in those 20 years did the House feel compelled to go to court to enforce its subpoenas.
Now, however, in the space of just seven months, this president and his administration have defied, or obstructed compliance with, House-committee subpoenas in more than half a dozen different matters—resulting in at least five lawsuits to date, with more likely to follow. Whatever your political leanings, you should hope fervently that the House comes out on top in these legal fights.
