Philip Bump: How the Trump-Congress subpoena fight is likely to play out
A good, balanced review of the issue of the day: Trump’s total resistance to Congressional oversight and subpoenas. 1/6
Some bottom lines: Trump will try to run out the clock (as he has always done as a scofflaw in the past as a private citizen), and in many respects time is on his side. But it varies from issue to issue. 2/6
Time is on his side where he can make a colorable case that a subpoena implicates executive privilege. 3/6
That case is extremely weak on the McGahn subpoena, the Mnuchin subpoena for his IRS audits, and for Cummings’s request for his financials from the Mazars accounting firm. 4/6
The executive privilege defense is strongest in the case of Kline, who has been asked to testify about Kushner’s security clearance. 5/6
Most of these cases are likely to end up in court. The above summaries give some indication of how courts will rule, but predicting how long it will take for the courts to decide is a harder. 6/6
