House Oversight Dem threatens jail for Trump officials who don’t comply with subpoenas

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, on Thursday warned that the investigative body “will use any and all power in our command” — including incarceration — should White House officials refuse to comply with congressional subpoenas to testify as the panel ramps up its wide-ranging investigation into the Trump administration.

“We’re going to resist, and if a subpoena is issued and you’re told you must testify, we will back that up,” Connolly said during an interview with CNN host Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.” 

{mosads}”And we will use any and all power in our command to make sure it’s backed up — whether that’s a contempt citation, whether that’s going to court and getting that citation enforced, whether it’s fines, whether it’s possible incarceration,” he continued. “We will go to the max to enforce the constitutional role of the legislative branch of government.” 

According to CNN, three officials thus far — White House adviser Stephen Miller, former security clearance official Carl Kline and John Gore, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division — have turned away requests from the committee to testify as part of its investigation into the Trump administration.

In the interview with CNN on Thursday, Connolly specifically called out Miller, referring to him as the president’s “immigration whisperer” and said that his committee wanted to learn what he “has in his head” as he continues to push for hard-line immigration policies in the Trump administration.

“We want to hear from him, what is your thinking, what is it you’ve been advising the president, and where is it you think you’re going to be taking us as a country with these kinds of policies and personnel changes?” he said.

Connolly also warned that should the Trump administration officials continue to refuse the panel’s requests to testify, the  legislative branch would become “a pale shadow of what it was intended to be.”