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Judiciary panel to vote to authorize subpoenas targeting Trump officials

The list of a dozen names the panel will consider Thursday includes Trump son-in-law and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Image: Senior Advisor to the President of the United States Jared Kushner
President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is one of a dozen current and former Trump officials who may get subpoenas from the Judiciary Committee vote this week.Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images file

WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee will vote Thursday on whether to authorize subpoenas for documents and testimony from current and former Trump administration officials.

Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., announced the markup in a release, which said the panel will consider a resolution authorizing subpoenas for 12 people who are witnesses sought in the panel’s investigation into potential obstruction and abuse of power by President Donald Trump. The resolution will also authorize documents and testimony related to the administration's family separation policy at the southern border.

The resolution includes subpoenas for Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former Homeland Security secretary and White House chief of staff John Kelly.

Other subpoenas will target former White House deputy chief of staff for legislative affairs Rick Dearborn, Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt, former White House aide Rob Porter, lawyer Keith Davidson, Dylan Howard, who oversees the National Enquirer, as well as its publisher David Pecker.

In the statement, Nadler said that his committee has held hearings and sent letters to the administration demanding answers to questions regarding the family separation policy.

“As always, I remain open to reaching a reasonable accommodation and will not issue subpoenas if the information we are seeking is voluntarily provided," Nadler said. "We will get answers one way or the other.”

Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., ranking member on the panel, derided the move. "Today’s latest effort to relitigate the special counsel’s investigation remains unimpressive and unproductive. Mr. Mueller’s team issued more than 2,800 subpoenas before concluding that no Americans conspired with Russia," he said in a statement. "Even if Chairman Nadler still believes subpoenas are conversation starters, it’s hard to imagine this handful of subpoenas will do anything but reinforce the principal conclusions we’ve been able to read about for months.”

Democrats have been demanding information from the administration for months regarding the administration’s policies over the treatment of migrants at the southern border. In May, Nadler and other members of the Judiciary panel wrote a letter to acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan and other officials calling for an immediate investigation into the deaths of five migrant children in U.S. custody over the last six months.

Separately, the House Oversight panel planned to hold two hearings on the treatment of children at the border this week.