Democrats ask judge for quick ruling on McGahn subpoena

House Democrats on Tuesday asked a federal judge for an expedited ruling on whether former White House counsel Don McGahn should abide by their subpoena to testify, citing the ongoing impeachment inquiry.

Lawyers for the House Judiciary Committee filed a motion arguing that there’s an urgent need for McGahn’s testimony as the impeachment inquiry also looks into whether President Trump lied to former special counsel Robert Mueller.

“As part of the House’s impeachment inquiry, the Committee is continuing to investigate instances of misconduct recounted in the Mueller Report, including episodes in which McGahn was involved,” the panel’s lawyers wrote in the filing.

“Since the Committee filed its initial motion in August, its need for McGahn’s testimony has become even more pressing,” they added.

Part of the inquiry is focused on whether Trump lied when he told special counsel investigators that he had had no conversations with his associate Roger Stone about WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign, at a time when the organization was releasing troves of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

A jury last week convicted Stone of seven counts of lying to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering in part because of his denial to the House Intelligence Committee that he had spoken with the Trump campaign about WikiLeaks.

Trump’s former deputy campaign manager Richard Gates, who signed a plea agreement with Mueller’s office over fraud charges, testified during Stone’s trial that he had heard Trump speak on the phone with Stone shortly after WikiLeaks released its initial batch of DNC emails. After the call ended, Trump said that more would be coming from WikiLeaks.

The Trump administration has argued that McGahn has “absolute immunity” from congressional subpoenas as a close adviser to the president.

The Democrats issued their subpoena in April shortly after the release of the Mueller report but months before the impeachment inquiry was officially launched in September.