During my time on Oversight, the chief justice’s words were often cited as justification for our vigorous supervision of the Obama administration. Led by Representative Darrell Issa, my former boss, Republicans issued more than 100 subpoenas, held Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, created a select committee to investigate Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of the Benghazi crisis, and filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging President Obama’s use of executive privilege.
In 2011, we sent a letter to Secretary Clinton that stated: “The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the principal oversight committee of the House of Representatives and may at ‘any time’ investigate ‘any matter’ as set forth in House Rule X.”
Also in 2011, when we suspected an effort to intimidate a witness called to testify at a hearing, Issa sent a letter warning the Obama administration that the “inappropriate effort to intimidate” and “discourage” someone from testifying before Congress was “an unlawful attempt to interfere with a Congressional inquiry.”
Yet when Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last week ignored a deadline to produce Trump’s tax returns, House Republicans refused to speak out against this blatant disregard for legislative authority.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member