The House judiciary committee has voted to authorize subpoenas for 12 people mentioned in the special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into election interference, including Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and former attorney general Jeff Sessions.
The vote gives Democratic congressman and panel chairman Jerry Nadler discretion on whether to subpoena current and former Trump advisers, such as the former White House chief of staff John Kelly, as part of a broad corruption and obstruction of justice investigation of the Trump presidency.
“These include government officials who worked, or continue to work, in close proximity to the president,” Nadler said at a meeting to consider the subpoenas. “We will not rest until we obtain their testimony and documents.”
The panel also voted to authorize subpoenas for documents and testimony related to Trump’s handling of immigration, including on the separation of migrant families at the southern border. The resolution authorizes an investigation into whether there have been any discussions of Trump offering pardons to homeland security officials who work on immigration issues.
Nadler will make the final decision about issuing the subpoenas and has said they can be avoided if witnesses and the administration cooperate voluntarily. The vote was 21-12.
Trump tweeted about the vote shortly before the meeting began. He said the witnesses “have already spent hours with Robert Mueller, and spent a fortune on lawyers in so doing”.
The president added of the Democrats: “Enough already, go back to work!”
The resolution authorizes subpoenas for documents and testimony from several former administration officials, including the former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.
Among the other subpoena targets are Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager; Jody Hunt, Sessions’ former chief of staff; and former White House aides Rob Porter and Rick Dearborn.
Three other names on the subpoena list are related to the National Enquirer’s efforts to help suppress potentially embarrassing stories about Trump over the years by paying hush money in a practice known as “catch-and-kill”. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen discussed the practice in testimony before the House oversight and reform committee earlier this year.
They include David Pecker, the chief executive of the National Enquirer’s parent company and a longtime Trump ally; Dylan Howard, who Cohen said was personally involved in coordinating payments to two women who said they had affairs with Trump; and Keith Davidson, an attorney who initially represented the women and negotiated their payments.
The top Republican on the panel, the Georgia representative Doug Collins, criticized Nadler’s handling of the investigations.
“If the goal truly is to get the information or testimony, our chairman is failing us, but, as I’ve repeatedly said, if the goal is political theater, Chairman Nadler is winning,” Collins said.
The judiciary panel is investigating whether Trump obstructed justice after Mueller’s report detailed several episodes in which Trump tried to influence his investigation. Mueller said he could not exonerate Trump on obstruction and indicated in a May news conference that it was up to Congress to decide what to do with his findings.
As part of that inquiry, Mueller is scheduled to testify to Congress next week before both the judiciary and intelligence panels for about two hours each. As the hearing approaches, Democrats have been in last-minute negotiations to figure out the format under the tight time constraints. It’s likely that not every member will get to question Mueller, a point that raised ire among Republicans at the committee meeting.
Collins said the panel was “rolled” and is “having our legs cut out from under us by limiting the questioning”. The Arizona representative Debbie Lesko, a junior Republican on the panel, said the decision to exclude some members from questioning is “just plain wrong”.
Nadler would not comment on the format after being repeatedly asked about it by Republicans. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said at a news conference that she wishes they had more time with Mueller, but “I’m glad we have the time that we have”.
On immigration, Democratic lawmakers have sought answers from the administration since more than 2,700 children were separated from their parents at the border last year as the result of a “zero-tolerance” immigration policy pursued by Sessions.
There was renewed outrage in recent weeks after squalid conditions were reported at border facilities where scores of children are detained well beyond the 72-hour limit by which they are to be transferred to more suitable facilities.