FYI about subpoenas

[ripcord]

All subpoena does is require someone to appear, they are not required to give any answers.

[marble falls]

1. No, the judges do that with contempt citations.

[ripcord]

6. He will get off

The DoJ will under no circumstances allow a member of the Presidents administration to be found guilty of contempt of Congress, if the Obama administration cleared Holder and Lerner you know Trump's DoJ will do the same.

[real Cannabis calm]

2. wrong!

Subpoenas Simplified
Simply put, a subpoena is a court-ordered command that requires you do to something. ... One type requires the recipient to appear in person to testify before a court or other legal authority. The other type requires the recipient to produce documents, materials, or other forms of evidence.

[StarfishSaver]

5. The OP is correct

Witnesses are not required to answer questions. For example, they can invoke executive privilege or refuse to answer based on their Fifth Amendment right again self-incrimination. There are limited instances in which a witness can be forced to testify but none of those apply here.

[real Cannabis calm]

16. You are correct about the 5th Amendment; but evoking it is a slippery slope

[Atticus]

22. Lewandowski did not invoke executive privilege or his 5th Amendment privilege, so how is

it acceptable to refuse to testify as to selected questions?

[StarfishSaver]

24. The White House invoked executive privilege over his testimony

Yes, it is permissible to invoke privilege as to particular questions andnnot others.

[StarfishSaver]

3. True

And while it's possible to hold someone in contempt for refusing to answer questions under certain circumstances, like after being granted immunity from prosecution, it's virtually impossible to hold anyone in contempt who has appeared and is responding to questions but not really answering or answering the way they want.

[vsrazdem]

4. They are required to answer or they can plead the 5th, otherwise a judge expects an answer or they

are held in contempt until they do, but since the DOJ will not enforce a contempt citation in court, we are screwed.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Remember that a Congressional Committee hearing is NOT a "court"

And the Committee Chair is not a "Judge". Congressional Committees have some remedies that include going to civil court (which is what they have done and they are awaiting the outcome of that).

[StarfishSaver]

9. They can also invoke executive privilege, which Lewandowski did

He didn't refuse to testify. He refused to answer some questions based on executive privilege. The only way to get around that is to take him to court, which would probably take months.

He did answer the other questions - at least in the sense that they asked him questions and then he talked. The lack of responsiveness to the actual question, as frustrating as it is, does count as answering and it's unlikely that a court would find him in contempt based upon this him a determination of whether a an answer is responsive or not is highly subjective.

[vsrazdem]

10. Yes, but he does not have executive privilege to invoke, its all a sham.

[StarfishSaver]

11. I know it's a sham but until a court rules that it is, it protects him

[vsrazdem]

14. Yes, whenever that might happen. In the meantime, continuing to watch this farce is really getting

to me. At this point, I am so disgusted by this entire situation, that I can't continue to watch any of it. It just reinforces how powerless the Democrats are to do anything. By the time anything happens the election will be here. I think I will just stop!!!, turn off the Damn TV, stop listening to pundicts, and do the ONLY thing I have the power to do, and that is Vote. I am too digusted to do anything else.

[StarfishSaver]

15. You can do more than just vote

Are you able to get involved politically in your community? You can help register people to vote, do voter education, volunteer with the local party, etc.

[vsrazdem]

19. I have made phone calls in the past, but I work 2 jobs 14 hours a day 6 days a week to

survive, so not much time for anything else.

[StarfishSaver]

21. Understood. But do what you can when you can

Every little bit helps.

Mini campaigns, parties, and organizations now have phone banking you can do from home which is a great way to participate on your own schedule.

[real Cannabis calm]

20. speaking of "community" has everyone visited their "State Forum" at DU?

There is a suspicious pattern in EVERY US State forum at DU, where a single person is dominating them all. Am I correct TexasTowelie?

[vsrazdem]

8. So, basically what I am getting out of this, is there is no separation of powers, congress cannot

conduct oversight because the executive branch and DOJ will continue to obstruct, and the Constitution isn't worth the paper it is printed on, and unfortunately we are finding that played out real time on TV.

[StarfishSaver]

12. The Constitution is worth more than the paper it's written on it. But it's not self-executing

It requires people to execute it. And when those people don't care about the rule of law, the Constitution can't single handedly stop them.

The same thing applies to any law. Unfor example we're all required by law to stop at red lights. The fact that some people blow through them doesn't make traffic lights useless area

[BumRushDaShow]

13. Nixon attempted to do the same

with withholding the tapes, claiming broad Executive Privilege - leading to that famous "United States v. Nixon" that threw out that attempt.

[ripcord]

17. It's exactly the same thing that happened with Lerner and Holder

If you didn't see this coming you don't know current history.

[Atticus]

23. Your conflation of Lewandowski and Holder is repulsive and your premise is inaccurate. nt

[KPN]

18. It does seem like a Constitutional. crisis in real time

But apparently Americans don’t really care that much. Perhaps too many people are still too comfortable. That can’t last forever, at least if things continue on the past 40 year trend line.