Trump Aims to Force Pelosi & House Dems to Take Impeachment Vote Before Complying With Subpoenas

by Countable's Trump Impeachment Coverage | 10.4.19

President Donald Trump on Friday told reporters that the White House is planning to send House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) a letter informing her that it won’t comply with impeachment-related subpoenas unless the House of Representatives votes to formally authorize an impeachment inquiry.

Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said the House would begin an impeachment inquiry without clarifying whether the House would hold a vote to authorize it. That decision has drawn criticism from Republicans, who say that without a formal vote the inquiry is illegitimate and that they’re being denied the subpoena powers granted to the minority party in the last two presidential impeachments.

Pelosi responded to a Thursday letter from Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) that aired those grievances with a statement of her own, which read in part:

“The existing rules of the House provide House Committees will full authority to conduct investigations for all matters under their jurisdiction, including impeachment investigations. There is no requirement under the Constitution, under House Rules, or House precedent that the whole House vote before with an impeachment inquiry.”

While there isn’t an explicit requirement in the Constitution or House rules that the House adopt a resolution formally authorizing an impeachment inquiry, it did so before proceeding with the two most recent presidential impeachment probes.

What happened in presidential impeachments past?

Under the leadership of Speaker Carl Albert (D-OK) in February 1974, the House cast an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 410-4 to task the Judiciary Committee with investigating whether sufficient grounds existed to impeach President Richard Nixon. The resolution allowed the chairman and ranking minority member to jointly authorize subpoenas and compel interviews, in addition to extending those powers to the full committee and its subcommittees. Nixon resigned in August 1974, less than two weeks after the Judiciary Committee advanced three articles of impeachment to the full House (which never took a vote to impeach Nixon).

In October 1998 under the leadership of Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), the House voted 258-176 with support from all Republicans and some Democrats to have the Judiciary Committee investigate whether President Bill Clinton should be impeached. That authorizing resolution went further than the Nixon resolution by giving both the chair and ranking minority member the power to authorize subpoenas and compel testimony, and requiring the full committee to vote on the subpoena if either declined to do so. The House voted in December 1998 to impeach Clinton for perjury before a grand jury (228-206) and obstruction of justice (221-212); although the Senate voted 45-55 and 50-50, respectively, to acquit Clinton of those charges in February 1999.

What happens next?

The Trump administration contends that unless full House votes to authorize the impeachment probe, it’s just conducting standard oversight and therefore entitled to a lesser level of disclosure from the White House. If Pelosi refuses to hold a vote and the White House makes good on its promise to resist impeachment-related subpoenas, it will likely trigger a series of lengthy court battles related to the disclosure of requested documents and testimony, which could drag into next year.

It’s unclear whether the potential for protracted court battles will prompt Pelosi to hold a vote to formally launch the impeachment inquiry, but the possible political repercussions of such a vote could cause her to rule it out. While more than 220 House Democrats and one Independent have publicly expressed support for an impeachment inquiry, Pelosi may prefer to spare the 31 Democrats from districts Trump won in 2016 from having to take such a politically contentious vote.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: The White House / Public Domain)