Graham: Trump should fight Dem subpoenas ‘like hell’

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called on President Trump to defy subpoenas from House Democrats, calling the lawmakers “political hacks,” according to CNN.

Graham, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on Trump to “fight like hell” against subpoenas demanding that the White House turn documents over to congressional committees.

The South Carolina Republican, who is up for re-election in 2020, told CNN that he is “OK with a politician fighting another politician,” and rejected any accusations that Trump obstructed justice in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

House Democrats are ramping up efforts to continue investigating Trump on obstruction, noting that Mueller’ detailed 10 episodes related to alleged obstruction that were subject to his team’s scrutiny. Trump said last week that he would fight “all the subpoenas” issued by the House, arguing that his cooperation with Mueller’s investigation was sufficient.

{mosads}CNN also asked Graham about his past comments during the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton.

Graham, who was then a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in 1998 that former President Richard Nixon became subject to impeachment when he “failed” to answer a subpoena, “because he took the power … over the impeachment process away from Congress.”

When CNN asked him about the quote, Graham responded “I said that?” and added that the situations were not analogous because Nixon had defied subpoenas from special prosecutor Leon Jaworski, not Congress.

“Their guys are political hacks right now,” Graham said. “Mueller was the guy I was looking to — not Nadler, not Lindsey Graham, not any of us, not a Republican.”

In 1998, Graham voted for an article of impeachment charging Clinton with “impair[ing] the due and proper administration of justice” and saying he “refused and failed to respond to certain written requests for admission and willfully made perjurious, false and misleading sworn statements.”

In the CNN interview, Graham denied he was partisan in his view of impeachment, noting he was the only Republican to vote against any of the articles of impeachment against Clinton, breaking with his party on an impeachment article related to alleged lying in a civil case.