House Judiciary chairman endorses bundling contempt resolutions

By Karoun Demirjian May 10 at 2:08 PM

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Friday endorsed the idea of bundling several contempt resolutions against people or entities affiliated with President Trump before having lawmakers vote on them — a sign that House Democrats expect to be stepping up their legal battles with the administration in the coming weeks.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) told reporters, noting that while such a vote would not happen in the next week, “it’ll be soon.”

“Given the unprecedented situation in which the administration’s essentially stonewalling all subpoenas — we’ve never had this before in American history so far as I know — it just makes sense to spend as little floor time as possible and do them together,” Nadler said.

The House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines earlier this week to hold Attorney General William P. Barr in contempt over his failure to produce the full contents of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report to Congress — something Barr has argued he cannot do without breaking the law, as releasing grand jury material would require a court order. The Judiciary panel had previously told Barr he could avoid contempt by joining House Democrats to approach a judge to seek the release of such materials, but Barr refused.

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