US Democratic Representative from New York Jerry Nadler reads from all 448 pages of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election at the US Capitol on May 16, 2019 in Washington, DC.
Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images
House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., on Tuesday threatened to go to court to get former White House Don McGahn to testify before his committee.
“Let me be clear: this Committee will hear Mr. McGahn’s testimony, even if we have to go to court to secure it,” Nadler said.
Nadler’s remarks came during an empty-chair hearing where McGahn was subpoenaed by the committee to testify about special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report. On Monday, Trump had directed McGahn not to comply with that subpoena, according to letters from administration officials who argued that McGahn was “immune” from being compelled to provide testimony.
“Our subpoenas are not optional,” Nadler said in the brief hearing, which adjourned after remarks from him and ranking Republican Doug Collins, R-Ga.
Nadler said in a CNN interview Monday evening that he planned to have his committee hold McGahn in contempt for defying the subpoena.
“The first thing we are going to do we’re going to have to hold McGahn in contempt” in his committee, Nadler told CNN. He said the full House would then move to enforce the contempt citation before launching court proceedings.
The House Judiciary Committee had voted to hold another Trump administration official in contempt less than two weeks earlier. Attorney General William Barr, who defied a subpoena to hand over an unredacted version of the Mueller report and its underlying evidence.
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