Looks like the Dems are revving up their pre-impeachment hearings. Stephanie Ruhle announced that the House Intelligence committee just subpoenaed Rick Gates and Mike Flynn.
"I think there's one key thing he can provide to investigations and that is if whether the president dangled pardons as an attempt to obstruct the investigation. Mueller's report said Manafort told Gates his lawyers would take care of him. Manafort conveyed the message that the president would pardon them, get them off, either though neither said the word pardon was used there," Sharon Pettypiece said.
"That's one thing to keep in mind with Gates. I do think too, the White House has been able to block a lot of these witnesses from testifying before the committee with McGahn, they will probably be able to assert executive privilege and issues with hope but they can't stop anyone talking about time in the campaign and it will be difficult to stop anyone talking about time in the transition. so the White House isn't going to be able to do much to stop Mike Flynn and Rick Gates from testifying."
"We talked about this before. The list gets longer, Don McGahn, Wilbur Ross, Rick Gates, they get subpoenaed right and left and end up at bird cage liners," Ruhle said.
"I think these are smart though because these people awaiting sentencing, particularly Flynn's case, he expects to see cooperation and he wants to see more," Cynthia Alksne said.
"It puts Flynn in a tough position. It's interesting the president, who treated this morning his support for Flynn, almost dangling another pardon. And remember keeping this in context, Flynn is the one that Dowd called Flynn's lawyer before and dangled the other pardon. Clearly Trump thinks Flynn has very damaging information.
"This is smart by the House committee to do this. I will agree with you though, I find it infuriating that all of these other people are getting subpoenas and they're doing nothing about it. It makes my blood boil that they are not in court and they need to do it right now."
"A dangling pardon could be enticing, but so can leniency. In Flynn's case specifically, Adam Schiff has suggested Flynn could get a break if he testifies. That's clearer than a voicemail from Dowd a year and a half ago," Ruhle said
"You're exactly right. These are two witnesses that are in a very different posture that other witnesses called by Congress. They're still cooperating with the government. They still have this hammer hanging over their heads with a potential sentence. You remember at Flynn's last appearance before the judge, when the judge didn't seem to go as well as they thought it would go. The judge took a break and said I need to you go back and do a little more. You need to continue cooperating. It's a real threat hanging over them. They have an added incentive to be cooperative with the House and provide testimony. I think we'll see a very different picture with them," Berger said.
