Political News: Impeachment inquiry live updates: White House faces Sunday deadline on participating in Judiciary Committee hearing – The Washington Post

“Only once before in our Nation’s history has an Article III court attempted to compel a close presidential advisor to appear and testify before Congress,” wrote Martin Totaro, an appellate attorney in the Justice Department civil division. “In that case … this Court not only granted a stay pending appeal but took the unusual step of publishing a precedential opinion granting the stay, explaining that the dispute was ‘of potentially great significance for the balance of power between the Legislative and Executive Branches’.”

U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of Washington on Monday found no basis for a White House claim that McGahn is “absolutely immune from compelled congressional testimony,” noting that “Presidents are not kings.” The ruling raised the possibility that McGahn could be forced to testify before the House Judiciary Committee as part of the impeachment inquiry.

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However, both sides said Tuesday night that they expect that a forthcoming report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz “will examine several topics related” to a request by Flynn’s defense team to find prosecutors in contempt for alleged misconduct.

Flynn has accused prosecutors of withholding evidence and sought to compel the government to turn over further documents, if they exist, asserting that he was duped into lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador after the 2016 U.S. election.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of Washington vacated the Dec. 18 sentencing hearing and suspended further briefing until the court orders.

The Washington Post reported last week that the inspector general is expected to find in the report that political bias did not taint top officials running the FBI investigation, while at the same time criticizing the bureau for systemic failures in its handling of surveillance applications.

Flynn pleaded guilty two years ago to lying to investigators. He has since changed his legal team, and while his current attorneys accuse the government of “outrageous misconduct” warranting dismissal of the charges, they have not formally moved to toss out his case or undo the plea agreement he reached with prosecutors.

Flynn, 60, pleaded guilty Dec. 1, 2017, to lying to the FBI about contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, becoming one of the first Trump associates to cooperate and the highest-ranking official charged in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“When we impeached Bill Clinton, we started with an independent counsel report,” Gingrich said. “The difference in the standard between this circus … and what we did in response to a genuine report by an independent counsel, they’re just radically different.”

Gingrich also accused House Democrats of conducting a “one-sided” inquiry against Trump, which he said “virtually guarantees that no Republican in the House or the Senate is going to vote to impeach.”

Twitter moved Monday night to suspend the accounts named @FionaHillPhd and @LtColVindman, the social media service confirmed to The Washington Post, but only after they had amassed thousands of followers in the wake of the real witnesses’ blockbuster Capitol Hill testimony. Users were widely retweeting those handles, seemingly under the impression the real Hill and Vindman were writing the missives.

Hill and Vindman don’t actually have Twitter accounts — and their legal teams raced to set the record straight and ensure that Twitter took swift action against the false accounts.

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“The next time you hit a pothole, you can say, ‘Well, don’t worry about it. I’ve got a subpoena from the Democrats,’ ” Meadows said.

House Democrats counter that they have passed a slew of legislation that the Republican-led Senate has declined to consider.

Blumenthal also decried Republicans who have given credence to “crazy conspiracy theories” pushed by Trump about Ukraine interfering in the 2016 election.

Blumenthal called that “dangerous to our national security” because it gives “additional cover” to Russian President Vladi­mir Putin for his country’s interference.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) has said his panel will look into Hunter Biden’s service on the board of a Ukrainian energy company while his father was vice president. Democrats have called that a distraction from Trump’s conduct.

“For Democrats to claim next week’s hearing gives @realDonaldTrump a chance to defend himself is a joke,” Collins tweeted. “Instead of bringing in Adam Schiff under oath, we are bringing in academics whose minds are already set against POTUS to give their opinion on this sham impeachment.”

“I write to ask if … you and your counsel plan to attend the hearing or make a request to question the witness panel,” Nadler wrote, adding that he is “committed to ensuring a fair and informative process.”

Nadler’s let