The battle between congressional Democrats and the Justice Department over Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report has reached new levels of vitriol, as some on the left call for Attorney General Bill Barr to be physically dragged in to testify or even locked up for defying congressional subpoenas.
“I think they will stonewall at all costs,” Cohen told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, adding that the situation “leaves us no other alternative than to have our Sergeant at Arms bring him in. He is being utterly contemptuous of Congress. He lied to the Congress.”
Inherent contempt, which allows a person to be held until they provide testimony, is one of three contempt options available, along with criminal contempt (under which an individual is charged with a crime) and civil judgment (leading to a civil court process)
Cohen added: “You have to have him sit for a hearing and you have to have him locked up until he agrees to participate and come to the hearing.”
Cohen said that he did not know what the committee would do but argued that without pursuing that avenue, a congressional contempt citation would be “meaningless.” – READ MORE