Political Quotes

“I send a question to the desk for the President's counsel on behalf of myself and Senators Boozman, McSally, Blackburn, Kennedy, and Toomey. The CHIEF JUSTICE. The Senators ask the President's counsel: Did the House bother to seek testimony or litigate executive privilege issues during the month during which it held up the impeachment articles before sending them to the Senate? Mr. Counsel PHILBIN. Mr. Chief Justice, Senators, no, the House did not seek to litigate any of the privilege issues during that time. In fact, they filed no lawsuits arising from this impeachment inquiry to seek to contest the bases that the Trump administration gave for resisting the subpoenas, the bases for why those subpoenas were invalid. When litigation was filed by one of the subpoena recipients--that was Dr. Charles Kupperman, the Deputy National Security Advisor--he went to the court and sought a declaratory judgment, saying: The President has told me I shouldn't go. I have a subpoena from the House saying I should go. Please, courts, tell me what my obligations are. I believe that was filed around October 25. It was toward the end of October. Very shortly, within a few days, the court had set an expedited briefing schedule and scheduled the hearing for December 10. They were supposed to hear both preliminary motions to dismiss and also the merits issue.…”