judge ketanji brown jackson disagreeing with the president that he says he has complete immunity from having either himself or any of his officials testify before congress. judge brown riding this court holds that executive branch officials are not absolutely immune from compulsory congressional process. no matter how many times the executive branch has inserted as much over the years. even if the president expressly directs such officials noncompliance. white house officials told me yesterday that know-how, no way is mcgahn ever going to testify before congress. dana, you will probably reminder that in the harriet myers case, the president refused to comply. she was charged with corruption she was charged rather with contempt of congress. that was a civil case that dragged on through the courts until january of 2009 when the 110th congress disbanded and therefore the contempt of congress citation became moot and the whole thing went away.
rival. yet, it was all about reaching people. the way they wanted to reach people turned out to proceed up in their face. it was a failure. and the investigation, well, that now is reaching millions of people. what they think about it. what they do about it. well, that s up as always to the american public. thanks for joining us on quite a busy news night. i ll be back 6:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow. requested hardball starts now. the dam is breaking. let s play hardball. reque . . reque . good evening, i m chris mathews in washington. there s break news tonight that could have huge implications for the trump white house and the ukrainian investigation. a federal judge has ruled in the last hour the executive branch officials are fought absolutely immune from compulsory congressional process. even if the president expressly
what is missing from the constitution. she writes, what is missing from the constitution s framework as the framers envisioned it is the president s purported power to kneecap house investigations of executive branch operations by demanding that his senior level aides breach their legal duty to respond to compelled congressional process. this judge is not holding back on her view of how the president and his legal team have interpreted congressional subpoenas, and as mieke was talking about, congressional oversight. yeah. there are some people who i think are baselessly claiming, you know, well some of these judges don t like trump or his policies. i ll tell you, ali, i think the judiciary doesn t like people disobeying the law or making up laws like executive privilege to really try to avoid proper oversight functions. so and i actually think i heard you say that mick mulvaney is putting out a statement that he s still going to refuse to comply. he s going to listen to trump if
congressional subpoena. in her ruling, judge jackson rejected the justice department s claim of unreviewable absolute testimonial immunity calling it, quote, baseless. executive branch officials are not absolutely immune from compulsory congressional process. even if the president expressly directs such officials noncompliance. this conclusion is inescapable, precisely because compulsory appearance by dint of a subpoena is a legal conconstrustruct and political one, and per the constitution, no one is above the law. end quote. mccann could invoke executive privilege during his testimony when appropriate, but she declared that presidents cannot unilaterally block officials from testifying. adding, quote, stated simply, the primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded american history is that presidents are not kings.