In House floor remarks last night, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) slammed an inherent Contempt of Congress resolution against Attorney General Merrick Garland.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I have so much to cover here from my friends on the other side of the aisle.
00:05First I want to just address something that my colleague from Wisconsin said when he said
00:12that the Constitution lays out very clearly in Article I the powers of Congress.
00:19And I would just ask him or any of my colleagues on the other side if you could point me to
00:25where in the Constitution it confers subpoena power on Congress.
00:32You won't be able to because it is something established by the Supreme Court that is derivative
00:38from Congress's power to legislate.
00:43So the Supreme Court has set forth exactly what a congressional subpoena is authorized
00:52to do.
00:53In a recent case, you may remember it, the Trump versus Mazars case, because Donald Trump
01:01sued his accountant to prevent them from providing documents to Congress to issue a subpoena.
01:14Congressional authority, that's what we're worried about here.
01:16Well, the Supreme Court reiterated the legislative purpose in order for a congressional subpoena
01:26to be valid.
01:28So I asked in our overview when we debated this, what is the legitimate legislative purpose
01:35that any one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle can identify to justify
01:42a contempt finding here, where they have the subpoena, including in the transcript,
01:52and everything else requested in that subpoena was provided to them, and they are insisting
02:01on getting the audio, audio of that transcript that they have.
02:07Now not surprisingly, in the Oversight Committee, which has no jurisdiction over this anyway,
02:11they offer nothing.
02:13But I did hear in the Judiciary Committee, my friend from North Carolina who is here,
02:18refer in a subsequent hearing to demeanor evidence as a legitimate purpose for this
02:26subpoena.
02:27Now, demeanor evidence is like a sophisticated legal speak that is very esoteric and only
02:36for trial lawyers, but really it is completely irrelevant to Congress's legislative role
02:43because we don't try cases.
02:46There's no trial here.
02:49There's no demeanor evidence.
02:50As much as you may want to prosecute Joe Biden, there is no congressional prosecution of Joe
02:56Biden and his demeanor evidence is no legitimate basis for this subpoena.
03:04Now, you of course know, and I don't even think you'd argue, that there's a legitimate
03:10legislative purpose to use the audio recordings in a political ad to support your dear leader,
03:17Mr. Trump, so that clearly falls outside of the range.
03:24Of course, my friends on the other side of the aisle should refocus from demeanor evidence
03:30to basic concepts like due process or executive privilege because the President of the United
03:40States asserted executive privilege over this audio tape.
03:44You may not like it.
03:46You may not agree with it, but you have no authority to determine that that is not a
03:54correct assertion of the executive privilege.
03:57And you know who else doesn't have authority to determine that?
04:00The Attorney General who you are trying to hold in contempt.
04:07Due process.
04:09You're going to fine someone $10,000 without notice or an opportunity to be heard.
04:17You're going to say, we're going to fine you because, and you have no opportunity to make
04:23a defense, and there is no neutral adjudicator?
04:28You can go to court all you want, and that's where you went, and that's where you belong.
04:33And that's why this resolution is such bogus.
04:37But I have a warning for you, my friends.
04:40You will reap what you sow.
04:43In June of 2019, then-President Donald Trump said he would, quote, defy all congressional
04:51subpoenas.
04:52And that is exactly what he did.
04:56During the first impeachment investigation, every single executive branch agency defied
05:03a lawful subpoena from Congress.
05:06Gentleman's time has expired.
05:07Members are reminded to address their remarks to the chair.
05:09I yield the gentleman one minute.
05:11Gentleman's recognized.
05:12The State Department was subpoenaed.
05:15The Defense Department.
05:16Not a single document.
05:19So I look forward to whoever one day is the Republican Secretary of State or Secretary
05:26of Defense to be held in contempt and fined, inherent contempt and fined $10,000.
05:31There were more than a dozen witnesses who refused to comply with the subpoena.
05:37And I'm not even talking about the five House Republicans who defied subpoenas in the last
05:45Congress that were determined by a court to be lawful and who would also be subject
05:52to inherent contempt because, of course, if this case where the audio tape is not provided,
05:59then blowing off a subpoena is definitely contempt.
06:03So you ought to be careful about the precedent you're setting because it is going to hurt
06:09you and your dear leader far more than us.
06:13I yield back.