‘Jail time’: Top Dem explains how they will deal with Trump officials involved in a ‘cover-up’

The Vice-Chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Tuesday that imprisonment was a possibility for members of Donald Trump's administration engaged in a "cover-up."

Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA) explained how House Democrats intend to proceed in the face of obstruction by Trump loyalists.

"The White House is ordering people to ignore subpoenas from your committee, not just in terms of documents, but also in terms of appearing," Maddow noted. "How does this resolve?"

"I mean, this is completely unprecedented, right?" Hill replied. "We don't have examples of this where we have attempt after attempt after attempt to obstruct every kind of oversight into this administration. It's really embarrassing and not just embarrassing, it's dangerous."

"I know yesterday the committee seemed to indicate that you're moving toward holding this one White House official -- on the security clearances issue -- you're moving toward holding him in contempt. What kind of penalties does that open him up to?" Maddow asked. "What sort of leverage does that give you over him to compel his testimony?"

"So there's -- when you told somebody in contempt, there are a few different things that can happen," Hill replied. "That could mean jail time -- where we have a conundrum right now is the Department of Justice is -- we've got [Attorney General Bill Barr] who is acing more as Trump's personal attorney and so I think where we have to figure out what exactly the path that we go down is going to depend on whether we can count on the Department of Justice to really uphold the Constitution and uphold the power of Congress as an independent branch."

"And if that's not the case, we have to look at different options here and again, I think it's important for us to get back into session next week, to meet with the different chairmen, to meet with leadership and figure out exactly where this leaves us," she explained.

She added, "it should be undeniable to the American people that this administration is doing everything that it can to cover up so many facets of what it has done ... both before and since he became president."

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