representatives of the american people who deserve that information so that they can make informed decisions. it s unacceptable that the administration continues that position, so it s not just the mueller report. that s a key part of it, but it is this blanket refusal to cooperate with the congress in exercising its constitutional duties. are you also, mr. leader, still demanding that don mcgahn, the former white house counsel also come up and testify and appear and bring documents along with him? the answer to that is yes. and very frankly, we re going to go to if required to do so and if we proceed, we re going to go to the courts to ask them to enforce those requests. because at the same time as you know the white house is now directing hope hicks, the former white house communications director and annie donaldson who was the chief of staff to the former white house counsel don mcgahn, not, repeat not to comply with congressional
at the same time, susan the white house is now directing the former communications director at the white house, hope hicks and annie donaldson who worked in the counsel s office, she was chief of staff to the former white house special counsel don mcgahn not to comply with congressional subpoenas for documents. how do they justify that? well, the basic claim here is that documents related to the work that these two individuals did while they were in the white house are covered by executive privilege. now, that might be true for some of the documents, but again, this is a very broad assertion saying that they shouldn t turn over any documents whatsoever, now both hicks and donaldson have left government service, so if they were inclined to want to provide those documents to congress, the white house certainly couldn t do much to stop them. that said, like don mcgahn, they have both sort of signaled that they intend to comply with the white house request, at least for now. hope hicks
donaldson s notes. donaldson was his chief of staff. she took meticulously detailed notes of conversations, meetings, what occurred in the white house. the notes have been compared to the nixon tapes. this are a way for congress to get real insight into what occurred in the white house, specifically the president s interactions with don mcgahn at really critical periods. that s a significant development if they get their hands on that. phil, as the attorney general investigates has ordered this new investigation of the origins of the entire russia probe, we re learning from the times the british newspaper that christopher steele, author of that dossier has agreed to speak with investigators about his work, his cooperation with the fbi. how significant is that? if you go to car races looking for car wrecks, this is significant. this will be a car wreck. look, this isn t about the mueller investigation per se. it s about the origins of the investigation and how the
subpoenas for documents. if hicks and donaldson refuse to cooperate, what s going to happen? do you support holding them in contempt as well? look, wolf, we can ask about a lot of different people, but the fact of the matter is we have a constitutional responsibility to oversight. now we re also passing substantive legislation. we re going to pass the promise and dream act in just a few minutes. that s a very important piece of legislation, so we re doing both, but we re exercising our constitutional responsibility. that s not a question of hope hicks or something else or mcgahn, it is a question of this blanket refusal to respond to constitutionally authorized questions to the executive department and asking for witnesses and documents. a blanket refusal is a blanket refusal. it s a refusal to respond, and the constitution is put at risk under those circumstances. so it s not just a person that we talk about. hope hicks or mcgahn or somebody
house-controlled democrats. the house intelligence committee did actually reach an agreement on their subpoena related to underlying information in the mueller report earlier on. there s some kind of a paradigm with success here. based on what the request has been, based on how jerry nadler has been very stout throughout that he wants the full unredacted report and based on the fact house democrats are more uneasy than they ve ever been about what they ve gotten in return for that request from the white house, right now it appears unlikely that anything. this latest offer from the justice department comes as the white house continues to stone wall the judiciary committee s subpoena for documents from two key former white house officials. what will the democrats do in response to that? it s still an open question, but it s very likely or at least very possible that hope hicks, the former white house communications director, one of the closest aides to president trump during her tame