Balance of Powers

It should come as no surprise to anyone who has been reading this blog (or, indeed, reading the paper or listening to the news regularly) that President Trump is trying to obstruct the House of Representatives’ investigations into his administration’s conduct.  In recent weeks, the President has refused to respond to requests from the various House investigative committees.  One specific example is his response to the House Oversight and Reform Committee chaired by Elijah Cummings.  The committee is investigating improper security clearances given to the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and others after national security experts denied them.  The Administration simply overruled the denials.  The Washington Post reported that:

Tricia Newbold, a longtime White House security adviser … and her colleagues issued “dozens” of denials for security clearance applications that were later approved despite their concerns about blackmail, foreign influence or other red flags.

The First Article of the Constitution tasks Congress with presidential oversight to maintain the balance of powers within the government.  The Executive Branch (the president) is to cooperate in this investigation. (The Clinton, Bush, and Obama Administrations all provided tens of thousands of documents during such investigations.)  President Trump has not submitted a single document to the Oversight and Reform Committee. 

The President, of course, can refuse the initial requests, but then the House committees have the prerogative to subpoena any information it needs, and it appears that Representative Cummings is about ready to do just that.  Despite Congress’s clear right (and responsibility) to subpoena the documents, the President’s lawyers have threatened to refuse and sue, stonewalling and delaying the inevitable. 

The Constitution rests on the Balance of Powers among the three branches of government, which gives each of these three formal oversight over the other two.  Without that oversight, there exists a real danger that one of three branches will come to dominate the government.  President Trump’s attempt to further hobble Congress’s constitutional responsibilities is not only his attempt to protect himself, but also a deeper threat to the Constitution and our democracy.

We are moving into a new phase of this presidency.