US PRESIDENT Donald Trump told a few impeachment jokes as he continued the 30-year-old tradition of pardoning a Thanksgiving turkey.
Trump’s latest act of clemency yesterday benefits Butter, a 47lb turkey wished a “lot of luck” by the president. He also said he was sparing Bread, Butter’s partner, from being served up on a Thanksgiving table.
Trump joked that the turkeys were trained to remain calm under any condition, “which will be very important because they’ve already received subpoenas to appear in Adam Schiff’s basement on Thursday”.
Schiff is leading the impeachment inquiry for the House of Representatives’ intelligence committee.
Yesterday a US federal judge ordered former White House counsel Donald McGahn to appear before Congress in a setback to Trump’s effort to keep his top aides from giving evidence. The outcome could lead to renewed efforts by Democrats to compel evidence from other high-ranking officials, including former national security adviser John Bolton.
Not even the Republican president’s closest aides who receive subpoenas from Congress can “ignore or defy congressional compulsory process, by order of the President or otherwise,” Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in a ruling on a lawsuit filed by the House Judiciary Committee.
“Stated simply, the primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that presidents are not kings,” Jackson wrote. “This means they do not have subjects, bound by loyalty or blood, whose destiny they are entitled to control.”
McGahn was a star witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, and Democrats wanted to question him about possible obstruction of justice by the president.
That was months before the House started an impeachment inquiry into Trump’s effort to get Ukraine to announce an investigation of former vice president Joe Biden.
The administration filed a notice of appeal early yesterday and asked Jackson to put her ruling on hold during the appeal.
“This decision contradicts longstanding legal precedent established by administrations of both political parties,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said.
“We will appeal and are confident that the important constitutional principle advanced by the administration will be vindicated.”
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