From a Tuesday letter from the White House Counsel’s Office to incomiong House Oversight Chair Robert Garcia: “I write to remind you of the foundational limits that the Constitution imposes on congressional investigations and subpoenas, which you and members of the new Congress have evinced a clear intent to transgress. The Supreme Court has held that ‘[i]nvestigations conducted solely for the personal aggrandizement of the investigators or to ‘punish’ those investigated are indefensible.’ Congressional investigations must further a legitimate legislative task; Congress cannot employ them to exercise powers of criminal prosecution assigned to the Executive and the Judiciary. These principles require Congress to identify a legitimate legislative purpose underlying its investigative acts. Failure to do so in this context represents a clear abuse of power and an affront our constitutional system to of government and to the rule of law. We are monitoring the abusive and capricious threats that are now proliferating from Democrat legislators who seek to abuse the legislative process to intimidate and to interfere with the lawful functioning of government.”
“Recent public statements underscore these concerns. You and your congressional colleagues have asserted that they will issue subpoenas to harass, threaten, and deter dedicated members of the Administration from further service. Several have compared their subpoena pledges to handing out ‘candy,’ ‘Mardi Gras beads,’ and enough paper to level forests.”