Political Quotes

“Mr. Chief Justice, I send a question to the desk on behalf of myself, Senator Rubio, and Senator Risch. The CHIEF JUSTICE. Thank you. The question from Senators Collins, Rubio, and Risch is addressed to the House managers: The House of Representatives withdrew its subpoena to compel Charles Kupperman's testimony. Why did the House withdraw the Kupperman subpoena? Why didn't the House pursue its legal remedies to enforce its subpoenas? Mr. Manager SCHIFF. Senators, I thank you for the question. When we--our practice in the House was to invite witnesses to come voluntarily; if they refused, to give them a subpoena. In the case of Dr. Kupperman, he refused to come in voluntarily, and we subpoenaed him. Almost instantly upon receipt of the subpoena, a lengthy complaint was filed in court where he sought to challenge that subpoena. Interestingly, and contrary to, I think, what you are hearing from the President's counsel here today, the House took the position that a witness cannot challenge--does not have standing to challenge a congressional subpoena. We were joined, by the way, in that position by the Justice Department, which also said that Dr. Kupperman didn't have jurisdiction to challenge or get a declaratory judgment as to the validity of the subpoena. So, in that litigation, we were often on the same page as the Justice Department. But more meaningful to us, we were simply not going to engage in a yearslong process of delay to get the answers that we needed.…”