Mulvaney Defies Congressional Subpoena

Mick Mulvaney, the White House’s acting Chief of Staff, defied a subpoena issued by House Democrats and skipped the call to testify on Friday at 9am.

Why Was Mulvaney Summoned and Why Did He Decline to Appear?

So far, testimonies in the ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Trump have all been behind closed-doors, and out of 13 scheduled witnesses, who were supposed to come and testify this week, only 2 have shown up – Jennifer Williams, special adviser to Europe and Russia to Vice President Mike Pence, and David Hale – a State Department employee.

Hogan Gidley, White House deputy press secretary, told reporters that participation is not mandatory for senior advisers: “Past Democrat and Republicans administrations would not be inclined to permit senior advisers to the president to participate in such a ridiculous, partisan, illegitimate proceeding – and neither is this one,” he said on Tuesday.

Mulvaney has emerged as a person who supposedly had a “key role” in withholding aid to Ukraine, which came out in George Kent’s deposition, with Adam Schiff, also claiming that the evidence clearly shows Mulvaney was “directly involved” with Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine.

Words that Mulvaney previously said in a press conference on Oct. 17 also came up, in which some claim he admitted to a quid pro quo: “We do that all the time with foreign policy. And I have news for everybody: Get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy,” Mulvaney said at the conference, however, after his initial statement, he walked back on admitting any kind of quid pro quo.

Upcoming Public Hearings

Perhaps we might see Mulvaney testify in the upcoming public hearings, which begin next week, on Nov. 13th. The first in line to testify are Bill Taylor, Ambassador to Ukraine, and State Department official George Kent, with “more to come,” as House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said, when he announced the first public hearings in the inquiry.