[BiggBob]

WAPO FWIW

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/congresss-subpoena-power-is-not-what-it-used-to-be/2019/04/03/cf32e1de-5638-11e9-8ef3-fbd41a2ce4d5_story.html

National Security
Congress’s subpoena power is not what it used to be

Congress’s power to enforce subpoenas by exercising its contempt power is now “really toothless,” said Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at George Washington University Law School.

The reason, in part, is that Congress relies on the very Justice Department it is pursuing to prosecute the contempt citation.

And the Justice Department has, in the past, simply declined to do so.

That leaves Congress only one route: a possibly interminable civil litigation.

Excerpt

[Cboldt]

That a reference to the Congressional criminal contempt power. A court's contempt power is enforced by the courts, not by the DOJ, so compulsion to give testimony has a different jailer. Judge gives a COURT order to testify. That is enforced by the court.

The difference is between "Congress finds contempt" and "Court finds contempt." The first one is a badge of honor.

[stylin19a]

thanx