Stalemate: White House Faces Subpoena Deadlines as Democrats Threaten Huge Fines
WASHINGTON - It's a week of deadlines and subpoenas for the Trump administration as the stalemate between the White House and Congress drags on.
According to the Washington Post, Democrats on the Hill are hitting the Trump administration with nearly 20 investigations and at least 79 document requests.
So far, no luck for Democrats as the Trump administration refuses to comply with many of the inquiries.
Democrats say there are other ways of getting what they want.
"You fine someone $20,000 a day to their person until they comply, it gets their attention," Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) told ABC This Week.
The administration is staring down a pair of deadlines this week.
First, the Department of Justice faces a subpoena for the full un-redacted Mueller report and any underlying evidence by Wednesday.
Next, the Treasury Department was issued a subpoena to turn over the president's tax returns by Friday.
Democrats are calling the administration's failure to give up the goods a constitutional crisis.
"We are seeing a breakdown of responsibilities. We saw it last week in the Barr hearing. We see it in the failure to comply with subpoenas," presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) told CNN.
"There is a failure to respect the significance of Congress' duty," she continued.
President Trump was on the defense last weekend and into Monday morning, firing off several tweets and contending the only 'crisis' lies within the Democratic Party.
The “Constitutional Crisis” is the Democrats refusing to work. Let them start by fixing the mess that their Immigration Laws have caused at the Southern Border.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2019
Some of his GOP counterparts agree it's all politics at play.
"The bottom line is we spent $35 million investigating the president. Their conclusion was there was no underlying crime. This whole convincing about 'oh well, maybe he committed obstruction of justice' to try to hide an investigation about something he didn't do. This is absurd and the American people know it," Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told ABC This Week.
"People have gone to their corners on it. But it's important to remember this was politically motivated from the very beginning," Paul charged.
Some of the questions are coming from within the GOP.
The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee served Donald Trump, Jr. with a subpoena to testify based on statements from President Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen.
"Donald Trump, Jr. has spent 27 hours already testifying. They're requesting him back based upon something Cohen has said when he is in jail for lying to Congress," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) pointed out.
However, defenders of GOP Senate Intel Chairman Richard Burr said it's a good faith effort at bipartisan leadership.
Still, Republicans say if there are going to be investigations, it's time to look into the origins of the whole ordeal.
"We'll look at the Clinton investigation. Was she let off because of a political bias? We'll look at the counter-intelligence investigation. FISA warrant. We're going to have all that looked at to make sure it never happens again," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) promised in an interview with Fox News Futures.