Subpoena Tsunami: House Democrats Issue Hundreds of Secret Subpoenas Targeting GOP Colleagues and Others

Below is my column in the Hill on the subpoena tsunami coming out of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6th riot in Congress.

The list of hundreds of targets include not only GOP members of Congress but demands for secrecy from these companies on the identity of targets.

This is not the first such subpoena tsunami in the House.

As with the Schiff subpoenas, Thompson is not only refusing to list names of the targets, he has also asked the companies to keep the subpoenas secret.

The storm of secret subpoenas also seems to run against the thrust of recent Supreme Court decision, Trump v. Mazars, which addressed congressional subpoenas seeking personal information of the president.

In sending the case back for further consideration, the court recognized the broad authority of Congress to issue subpoenas; however, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that congressional subpoenas must address a "Valid legislative purpose" and be "Related to, and in furtherance of, a legitimate task of the Congress."

The use of subpoenas for political purposes is nothing new, particularly to paint others as "Un-American." In 1957, the Supreme Court reviewed the contempt conviction of a union official, John Thomas Watkins, who refused to name communist union members to the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

https://jonathanturley.org/2021/09/02/subpoena-tsunami-house-democrats-issue-hundreds-of-secret-subpoenas-targeting-gop-colleagues-and-others/