From the Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz

[George II]

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz announced today the initiation of a Review of the DOJ’s Use of Subpoenas & Other Legal Authorities to Obtain Communication Records of Members of Congress and Affiliated Persons, and the News Media
https://oig.justice.gov/news/doj-oig-initiates-review-department-justices-use-subpoenas-and-other-legal-authorities-obtain

Link to tweet

[gab13by13]

1. A good first step,

but this may take a while and he can only investigate current DOJ employees, which leaves Sessions and Barr out.

[George II]

2. Congress can subpoena Sessions and Barr, which they're hinting they will, and they can't....

....avoid it like they could have when they were in office.

[angrychair]

12. Why can't they?

It has been shown that they subpoena people and people can just ignore it. Not like congress can arrest you.
They would get taken to court. Two or three years goes by, they lose and it doesn't matter anymore and they still are not likely to be forced to testify.

All the way back to Bush and Cheney, Democrats has done little to hold Republicans criminally liable.

[George II]

18. They're both private citizens now. They can't ignore a subpoena.

[angrychair]

21. Not trying to be rude

But it doesn't matter if they are private citizens or not.
If Congress subpoenaed me right now, I could just ignore it and there is nothing they can do to make me testify but take me to court. Congress has no power to arrest people.
As long as I have the money to fight it I could tie it up in court for years.

[George II]

24. I just looked up the consequences. There have been very few cases where an individual was....

....cited for contempt. All of them were of people in government, and from what I can find in most cases the person cited wound up complying with the subpoena. I couldn't find anyone actually fined or jailed.

Here's the process:

Following a contempt citation, the presiding officer of the chamber is instructed to refer the matter to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; according to the law it is the duty of the U.S. Attorney to refer the matter to a grand jury for action.

The criminal offense of contempt of Congress sets the penalty at not less than one month nor more than twelve months in jail and a fine of not more than $100,000 or less than $100.

[bottomofthehill]

32. Yes, but usually Congress gets what it wants before jail

[bottomofthehill]

27. Contemp of Congress gets referred to the US Attorneys office.

In the case of Harriet Myers and Karl Rove the justice department was run by Republicans same as the Trump years. These are not those years.

[angrychair]

30. I'm willing to bet

My entire bank account that people like Barr and Sessions will completely ignore a subpoena from this congress and they will not do anything about it.

They would not make a criminal referral.

[bottomofthehill]

31. I don't know that you would want to go that far

Not knowing your bank account, Democratic Members are pissed over this invasion and it will continue to get wors with the Microsoft revelation, my bet is others will come up. I have a feeling we will not need to test your bank account as I think we will see sessions and Barr, they may stand on their 5th amendment rights, but I do think we will see them.

[angrychair]

38. Not that I don't hope you're right

But I have serious doubts either Barr or Sessions will ever show up. There is absolutely no reason for them to show up. Both men have now stated they had no knowledge of any investigations. They are either incompetent, lying or both.

I hope they do testify but given past behavior I would be shocked.

[mcar]

3. This is a very good thing

People on social media need to realize it will take time.

[malaise]

5. That is true but would this start have taken plae without

the NYT breaking news last night

[mcar]

6. Maybe so, maybe not

I have no beef with MSM breaking stories, followed by an investigation announcement. I do have problems with some who demand the administration "do something NOW!!11" without realizing that these things take time.

[malaise]

7. It is complicated

because it is also true that had DOJ announced investigations on their own, they would have been accused of a partisan witch hunt - although that is already the official Slobfather's position.

[mcar]

13. You got that right

Also, love Slobfather!

[malaise]

16. I stole it from DUer thucythucy

[AllaN01Bear]

33. heart slobofather .+100000

[StarfishSaver]

9. True

And they have a gazillion things going on right now - but it's possible that this got moved to the top of the list given some of the public pressure - which is not a bad thing, but that means something for pushed farther down the priority pole.

One or the many things DOJ and other government officials have to grapple with is the balance between being responsive to the public and not being jerked around by public opinion.

[mcar]

15. That's right

Also having the time and person power to do all this.

[angrychair]

14. Time is always the excuse

Still waiting for Cheney and Bush to be held accountable. How much longer?

[ShazzieB]

26. Oh, I see.

There was no accountability for Bush and Cheney, and therefore no one in our government will ever be held accountable for anything, ever. I see.

[angrychair]

28. No, not just that

Trump spent 4 years with little to no accountability and there is little to no evidence that will change, especially if institutionalists have a say in it. They would much prefer to sweep this all under the rug and pretend it didn't happen.

[dem4decades]

4. No one at DOJ knew about this before today? It's a dirty organization.

Where's the house cleaning? These unamerican officials didn't uphold their oath to the Constitution, why are they still working there?

[StarfishSaver]

10. Why do you assume there's been "no housecleaning"?

DOJ has more than 155,000 employees. It's going to take more than a few days or even a few months to do the kind of "house cleaning" that needs to be done.

Among other things, not only do they need to figure out who needs to stay and who needs to go, they can't just do a wholesale purge and toss everyone out because they still have work that needs to be done that can't be done in a vacuum with a skeleton staff.

This is very complicated and delicate and not nearly as simple as "toss the bums out and start over again."

[ShazzieB]

25. This is absolutely correct.

I'm getting really tired of all the negativity around here these days. Some people throw around words like "always" and "never" way too much without stopping to think about those words really mean.

[StarfishSaver]

29. It's clear that

some people really just want to vent and complain and seem to get annoyed when anyone gets in the way of that, for example, by pointing out that someone is trying solve the problem they're venting and complaining about. The complaining is the point, not solving the problem.

[Autumn]

34. There is not one person here that can solve the problem, or any problems we face for that matter.

Message boards are where people post their thoughts, concerns and yes, complaints about their governent and elected officials and seek discussion about those things with other posters. That's how the owner of this site makes money.
Then there are others who want people to shut up because they don't want to hear it or they don't like what others are posting about. I can't figure out why they are here if they don't want to join others in the discussion or share their knowledge. Their schtick seems to be complaining about people who do want to discuss things.

[StarfishSaver]

35. A whole lot of people here think they know what needs to be done to solve the problem

and are quite certain that The people who are trying to solve the problems are doing it all wrong.

And, FYI, I'm not referring to people who want to "discuss things."

[Autumn]

36. All I've seen are people posting that they want the DOJ to do something, they want to see

and hear some action and they post what they want to see done. No one here is telling anyone who is trying to solve any problems how to do it. Because nobody who trying to solve the problem has the time to sit their asses on here and read posts about how what they are doing is wrong.

[StarfishSaver]

37. It sounds like you're reading this board very selectively.

[Autumn]

39. Not at all.

[kentuck]

11. Remember this? From Michael Horowitz report on Crossfire Hurricane

https://www.lawfareblog.com/thoughts-horowitz-report-part-ii-what-inspector-general-did-not-find

[NQAS]

19. What did the DOJ know and when did they know it?

If known early on, it would gave been appropriate to announce it as well as the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Also, surely it’s possible to oust the former guy’s moles.

I don’t know who appointed this IG, but if he’s a trump appointee I wouldn’t believe a word of any report he authors, including the date and his name.

[StarfishSaver]

20. Google him.

[Firestorm49]

22. Barr will continue to lie his ass off as he's done this week

by denying any knowledge of the workings of his own department. B fricking S!

[Bev54]

23. Can someone just tell us they are investigating the people involved as well

and that they will not hesitate to indict them if warranted. Please provide public updates. Transparency is needed now.