Democrats are looking to speed up the process of enforcing their subpoenas

Jerry Nadler.
(Image credit: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

House Democrats have introduced a resolution to hold Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn in contempt — and while they're at it, they're looking to make enforcing subpoenas against Trump administration officials easier.

A resolution to be voted on next week will empower committee chairs to enforce subpoenas in court and hold officials in contempt without a full House floor vote, with the hope being to "expedite" the process and "avoid repeated contempt votes on the House floor," CNN reports.

This proposal would still require committee chairs to receive approval from a bipartisan panel of House leaders, although this group is Democratically-controlled, Politico reports. The resolution says that a vote taken by this Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to authorize litigation "is the equivalent of a vote of the full House of Representatives," and Politico writes it will not only "speed up the House's ability" to respond to the White House but also give Democrats "sweeping authority" to "engage directly" with the administration in court.

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This comes as the White House has repeatedly rebuffed Congress' subpoenas, with Barr not providing Democrats with a copy of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's full, unredacted report and McGahn not providing Congress with testimony. It also comes as two more former White House officials have been instructed to ignore congressional subpoenas: Hope Hicks, former White House director of communications, and Annie Donaldson, McGahn's former chief of staff. House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) argued to CNN that as a result, this move is "regrettably very necessary."

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.