Trump said his White House was fighting all subpoenas. I wanted to know what that meant, especially in terms of consequences. This is what I found:
What is a subpoena?
A subpoena is a legally enforceable demand for documents, data, or witness testimony. In Latin, “sub poena” means “under penalty.”
The Supreme Court has also recognized Congress’s power to issue subpoenas, saying in order to write laws it also needs to be able to investigate.
Congress’ power to issue subpoenas, while broad, is not unlimited. The high court has said Congress is not a law enforcement agency, and cannot investigate someone purely to expose wrongdoing or damaging information about them for political gain. ‘A subpoena must potentially further some “legitimate legislative purpose,” the court has said.
If lawmakers want to punish someone who ignores a congressional subpoena they typically first hold the offender “in contempt of Congress.” The contempt process can start in either the House or the Senate. Unlike with legislation, it only takes one of the chambers to make and enforce a contempt citation. Typically, the members of the congressional committee that issued the subpoena will vote on whether to move forward with a contempt finding. If a majority supports the resolution, then another vote will be held by the entire chamber. Only a majority of the 435-member House (or 53-47 Senate) needs to support a contempt finding for one to be reached.
How is a contempt finding enforced?
In 1821, the Supreme Court upheld Congress’s right to hold people in contempt and imprison them. Without this power, the court ruled, Congress would “be exposed to every indignity and interruption, that rudeness, caprice, or even conspiracy, may mediate against it.” In 1927, the Senate’s Deputy Sergeants-at-Arms, John McGrain arrested, Mally S. Daugherty in Ohio. Daugherty was the brother of the 51st Attorney General, Harry Daugherty.
In theory The individual is brought before the House or Senate by the sergeant at arms, tried at the bar of the body, and can be imprisoned in the Capitol jail. The existence of the capitol jail today depends on who you ask.
In 2008 the congress voted to hold former White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before a panel investigating the firing of several United States attorneys. When Congress asked the DOJ to prosecute, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, acting pursuant to long-standing DOJ practice, refused to proceed with any further action on the contempt of Congress citations. Then the Judiciary Committee did something that Congress had done only once before (and not since the Watergate era); it filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking judicial enforcement of the subpoenas.
The DOJ (White House) argued the Congressional subpoenas threatened executive privilege. District Judge John Bates rejected the executive’s argument. The judge did not order disclosure of all the documents, nor did he order Miers to answer every question.
The court then suggested that, now that the President’s claim of absolute privilege had been denied, the parties return to the usual process of negotiation and accommodation and work out a compromise.16 The parties reached such a compromise agreement, but only after the change of administrations.
Where does all this leave us today?
I would assume if Congress passes a contempt it would go back to Federal court like it did during the Bush years and Trump can argue that congress is not issuing subpoenas to advance investigations related to legislation but investigations that are only politically motivated. The Supreme Court explained Congress’s need to link the investigative power to a particular legislative inquiry in Watkins v. United States:
"There is no general authority to expose the private affairs of individuals without justification in terms of the functions of the Congress . . . . Nor is the Congress a law enforcement or trial agency. These are functions of the executive and judicial departments of government. No inquiry is an end in itself; it must be related to, and in furtherance of, a legitimate task of the Congress. Investigations conducted solely for the personal aggrandizement of the investigators or to “punish” those investigated are indefensible."
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1035&context=jcl
https://thehill.com/homenews/news/14303-house-finds-bolten-miers-in-contempt-of-congress
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-congress-subpoena-explainer/explainer-congress-no-longer-runs-a-jail-so-just-how-powerful-are-its-subpoenas-idUSKCN1S02K8 (really good link)
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/opinion/04tue4.html