Trump’s Trying to Get Away With Something Even Nixon Couldn’t
The historic political battles that explain why key witnesses are refusing to testify during the impeachment hearings
One of the great puzzles in the impeachment hearings against Donald Trump is why so many administration officials are getting away with defying congressional demands to testify. So far, on the president’s instructions, Defense Secretary Mike Esper, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney have refused House subpoenas; Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s attorney, has vowed to do the same. Two other former officials, former National Security Adviser John Bolton and his aide Charles Kupperman — both called to testify before Congress — have asked U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon to decide between the two branches’ claims, with a hearing set for the distressingly distant date of December 10.
Trump and his aides stand charged with asking a foreign power to help the president in the upcoming presidential election — an obviously impeachable and possibly criminal offense.
Especially now that Congress has formally voted on and opened impeachment proceedings, mooting Trump’s argument that the closed proceedings were illegitimate, only the most…
