The White House has completely ignored Democratic requests for documents, and President Donald Trump's administration expects to get away with it.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) wrote to the White House last month demanding information about Trump's national emergency declaration, but the Feb. 22 deadline came and went without a response -- or even an acknowledgement of the request, reported Politico.
Veterans of previous administrations and on Capitol Hill said Trump officials are violating established norms by ignoring requests for documents and other information, and either ignoring the requests altogether or responding with aggressively hostile letters.
“The White House is taking the exact right tactic to ignore the requests and see what comes of it,” said David Bossie, a Trump confidante who led the investigation into Bill Clinton in the 1990s. “I wouldn’t respect [the Democrats’] process.”
Bossie said the White House was justified in ignoring the demands, which he dismissed as partisan, and predicted they would face no serious legal consequences for stonewalling Democratic oversight.
Administration officials met with congressional staffers last week to discuss requests for documents related to security clearances for the president's family members, but the White House plans to push back when they feel it's appropriate.
“I think they have an arrogant attitude toward Congress,” said Charles Tiefer, former solicitor and deputy general counsel of the House. “You have to go back to the Nixon administration to find this.”