Democrats investigating President Donald Trump are reportedly considering calling in a number of allies close to Trump who never worked inside the White House to see if they can provide them with information that would damage the president.
Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, are all reportedly being considered to provide testimony before Congress as former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe ended and found Trump committed no wrongdoing, according to Politico.
“These people could be called without any reasonable shred of a claim of executive privilege,” Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the Judiciary panel, said. Raskin is also leading the obstruction probe against Trump and supports his impeachment.
Paul Manafort arrives for a hearing at US District Court on June 15, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP) (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
This all comes as The House Intelligence Committee sent subpoenas Thursday to former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates. (RELATED: House Intelligence Committee Subpoenas Michael Flynn, Rick Gates)
The subpoenas demand that Flynn and Gates, who both pleaded guilty to crimes stemming from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, give the committee requested documents by June 26. The two are also supposed to go in front of the committee for a sworn testimony July 10.
Flynn, a retired lieutenant general, pleaded guilty to the charges at a plea hearing in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 1, 2017. Flynn lied to FBI agents during a Jan. 24 interview in which he was asked about his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Gates also pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI and the special counsel. He agreed to cooperate with Mueller in February 2018.
Regardless of the report’s findings, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler requested a number of documents from the White House and sent letters seeking information from people and organizations close to Trump on March 4.
Nadler sent the requests to 81 groups, people and organizations, searching for Constitutional abuses and corruption by Trump. The New York Democrat said the requests for documents are to “begin investigations, to present the case to the American people about obstruction of justice, about corruption and abuse of power.”
