Georgia is one of nine (9) states in the United States with a Board of Pardons and Paroles that exclusively grants all state pardons… Georgia is one of the three states whose governor does not have the authority to grant clemency, although he retains indirect influence by virtue of his power to appoint Board members…
You’re correct. In order to get a subpoena enforced, a committee must apply to the DOJ as they are the enforcement arm. DOJ has final discretion to decide which subpoenas they will enforce and which they won’t.
To date, they issued contempt charges for non-compliance against Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, and declined to issue contempt charges for Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino.
Since Meadows and Scavino were actual members of Trump’s “administration,” gaining compliance for them will be much more challenging – and ultimately not very productive, I expect, due to possible legitimate claims of executive privilege. Sorting it out would take years.
They’re just completely different sorts of subpoenas, enforced in different ways. It’s not that one is considered more or less important than the other.
Congressional subpoenas are enforced by the DOJ when they are ignored. During the Trump era, the DOJ was corrupted and political, so that agency would not enforce subpoenas issued by Democrats or their investigative bodies. It was a huge departure from how things have always been done.
Remember, Hillary Clinton complied with a congressional subpoena from the what, eighth? Ninth? Benghazi!™ Committee. Her compliance was never in doubt.
I think Eric Holder blew off one coming from another highly politicized committee hearing into Fast and Furious during the Obama years, but that’s the only one I can remember before Trump. I wish he had not done that, but he had testified before other Fast and Furious committee hearings prior to this instance, I believe.
We seriously undermine one of our branches of government to allow politicians to get away with ignoring congressional subpoenas. But in an environment as toxic as the one we currently find ourselves in where every single thing is politicized, there will be lots of abuses.
I dunno. I could see Abbott or DeSantis doing that if a state with a Democratic governor, say California or Michigan, so requested.
Their own LEOs would rebel, because that would set off a chain reaction where every state was its own country. The Feds would step in and force compliance, which nobody wants. This fact also shields a mega-right governor from criticism by the (m)asses. “Sorry, my hands are tied. (weep, weep)”
“The subpoenas also cover a handful of the Trump campaign’s other former legal advisers, including John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, Cleta Mitchell and Kenneth Chesebro.”
Cheese Bro. Get outa here!
You made me smile. Thanks for the info!
Definitely.
Why was Lindsay Graham subpoenaed? What was his involvement in Trump’s trumpfucking down in Georgia?
He’s alleged to have phoned a friend in Georgia on behalf of Trump.
ETA:
"You’re expected to pay fines that the court levies against you.
Sure, but what if we … didn’t?
Bit more than “a friend.” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. You know; the guy in charge of counting votes in the State of Georgia.
And they didn’t talk about fishing.
It doesn’t look like there is a recording of this call. But it will be interesting to learn if there was anyone else on the call on Raffensperger’s end.
irony and understatement as rhetorical devices. 
I know, and I understand you were employing those devices. But not everyone will click on your link, so I added a bit of meat on the bones. I’m continually surprised at what some know but what many more don’t.
It wasn’t meant in an adverse way.
I agree and I think this is one of the most damaging things Trump has done to the system in the US. He’s gone ahead and proven that most of the “rules” are just courtesies with absolutely no enforcement mechanism beyond shame… which has no effect on folks who are not possessed of shame in the first place. I wouldn’t think Trump and his ilk would be Rage Against the Machine fans but they sure seem to like the “eff you I won’t do what you tell me!” part of that one song.
There usually are consequences - but the other legal and political actors too often seem to lack the guts to impose them, or are blocked by Trump’s supporters from doing so.
…or are Trump supporters themselves.
This is probably more a misread on my part than a nitpick attempt, but with the bolded, wouldn’t Trump’s flouting of the rules actually have a tremendous impact on most scumbags in general by giving them more agency, more of a platform to try to pull off all their dumb shenanigans? Emboldening, toxic inspiration. (Given that your reference “Trump and his ilk” is about his base, not immediate underlings like Meadows, et al - if I misread, oops)
Agree.
This article is paywalled, but the first two available paragraphs give you a sense of its perspective:
Basically, Trump is inherently a grifter without an ideology of his own, which is why he never really followed up in a long-term way on any of the political opportunities and systemic vulnerabilities exposed by his instinctive predatory pursuit of weakness, but his actions laid out a road map that more motivated people will cheerfully exploit.
The “states’ rights” far right crowd in fact want exactly that - each state as it’s own little country.
That’s because they’re all blithering idiots who haven’t considered the effects it would have, or cruel homunculi who have and don’t care.