WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are steeling for an extraordinary fight with President Donald Trump as the White House stonewalls congressional oversight demands in the aftermath of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
In the latest case, Trump, his family and the Trump Organization have filed a lawsuit against Deutsche Bank and Capital One attempting to thwart congressional subpoenas into his financial and business dealings, asserting the requests are out of bounds.
That comes as Trump’s treasury secretary is declining to produce the president’s tax returns, Attorney General William Barr is threatening to back out of his agreement to appear this week before the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee, and former White House counsel Don McGahn and other officials are being encouraged not to testify before Congress.
“He’s prepared to fight us tooth and nail. And we’re prepared to fight him back,” said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee. “He obviously has something to hide.”
The standoff pits the legislative and executive branches against each other in a constitutional showdown not seen since the Watergate era. Neither side is expected to back down. The debate over witnesses and documents could escalate with legal battles rippling into the 2020 election.
From Trump’s perspective, since Mueller finished his report on Russian interference into the election, there’s no further need to investigate. It’s a view largely backed by the president’s party in Congress. But Democrats say it’s their duty to conduct oversight even as they are also confronting the limits of their own enforcement powers.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said the stonewalling “certainly builds the case that the administration and the president is engaged in wholesale obstruction of Congress, completely extraconstitutional, trying to make the presidency not responsive to Congress, trying to make the presidency into a monarchy.”
Nadler said the White House’s position is “absolutely unacceptable.”
Impeachment proceedings, though, which would run through Nadler’s committee, remain off the table for now, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi is urging the House chairmen to push forward with their oversight agendas.
Republicans have largely stood by Trump and shown little interest in the oversight agenda many view as little more than a partisan attack on the president...
