Two former Trump aides ordered to defy House subpoenas

The White House has ordered two former aides to President Trump to defy their subpoenas to appear at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday. 

White House counsel Pat Cipollone said in a letter to the panel that the Justice Department recommended and Trump directed Rick Dearborn and Rob Porter to go against their subpoenas due to “constitutional immunity.”  

{mosads}The letter said the two were told not to go “because of the constitutional immunity that protects senior advisers to the president from compelled congressional testimony, and in order to protect the prerogatives of the Office of President.”

Democrats are legally objecting to the ability to declare “absolute immunity” in a suit against former White House counsel Don McGahn.

The only expected witness for Tuesday’s hearing now is former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Cipollone instructed Lewandowski in another letter that he should not disclose private conversations with the president beyond what is public from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, The Associated Press reported. 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) subpoenaed all three to discuss what was reported by Mueller and to investigate whether Trump should be impeached. 

Nadler said in a statement Monday night that the White House’s directions are a “shocking and dangerous assertion.”

“The President would have us believe that he can willfully engage in criminal activity and prevent witnesses from testifying before Congress — even if they did not actually work for him or his administration,” Nadler said.