Democrats weigh for a strategy of "Benghazi Trump"

Democrats may not be able to compel President Donald Trump to initiate impeachment proceedings or obtain documents from his administration, but they have another way of bludgeoning him: hearings, hearings, and more. hearings.

It is a counter-strategy to the president's total resistance to congressional investigations, legislators told POLITICO. Democrats say that optics is on their side. Witnesses such as Attorney General William Barr, former White House lawyer Don McGahn, and Special Advocate Robert Mueller, have all the guarantees to attract the attention of the media . And even if bold names do not show up, party leaders acknowledge that the spectacle of empty chairs and protracted court battles could cause Trump to lose track and create negative stories in the 2020 race.

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"Let's face it, most Americans will not read a report of more than 400 pages," said Georgia's Hank Johnson, a senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, citing the report summarizing the nearly two-year investigation of Russia. "They would much rather see something on television on which they can draw their own conclusions. It's our age. It's almost entertainment. "

Democrats say that a series of hearings will also highlight Trump's efforts to block their innumerable investigations. The President withstood at least half a dozen House committee assignments and launched a unprecedented series federal prosecutions to invalidate some of the requests for information.

The approach is almost as much political as tactical. This gives Democrats a chance to navigate the thorny issue of impeachment while showing their majority and showing flexibility. And they could even discover wrongdoing along the way as the 2020 presidential race heats up.

"Some think they should" Benghazi "Trump," said Julian Epstein, a former Democratic councilor in the House, saying that Republicans have spent two years tirelessly holding hearings 2012 terror attack in Libya, revealing the private messaging server of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The unexpected discovery ultimately haunted Clinton's own presidential campaign.

Epstein, who served as chief counsel of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Democrats during the battle for the removal of Bill Clinton, said that a series of hearings had two objectives: create a political weapon to weaken the president from 2020, and satisfy the parties House has not acted to dismiss the president.

"Democrats are trying to figure out what their exit is here," he said.

One, he said, is the "Benghazi" approach, hearing. Another is a censorship resolution that goes to the House, actually serving as a formal slap on the wrist for Trump. "They do not have many good options," said Epstein.

Trump and his administration also wanted to play the political card.

White House officials have either refused to hand over documents or delayed production to 12 House committees, according to Democratic advisers. Several senior administration officials also ignored requests for interviews and testimonials. Barr, for example, is resistant plans appear Thursday before the Judiciary Committee of the House because the Democrats want to allow the staff counsel committee to ask the Attorney General an extra hour of questions about the Mueller investigation.

The president and his allies claim that Trump has the power to fight the House Democrats because they openly dislike him for planning to launch an investigation and discuss impeachment well before the mid-term elections of last year did not bring them back to power.

"By the time you hear all this, you say," What am I, a sucker? I will introduce myself to those people who want to hang me? ", Told POLITICO Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal attorney. "It's a complete political game now. It's even what they calculate based on whether they will hurt themselves or not by pursuing it. "

Nevertheless, Democrats continue to set the stage for more high profile audiences.

On the monitoring panel, they published a subpoena to a former White House official to testify about possible violations of security clearances. The meeting would highlight allegations that staff members such as Trump's son-in-law and President Jared Kushner's chief adviser have been granted permission after being initially denied.

In the Judiciary Committee, the Democrats organize to organize what could be the biggest audience: Mueller himself. They have assigned the Department of Justice for Mueller's full report, its underlying evidence, and talks ask the special advocate to testify as early as next week. They also allowed subpoenas to appear before a list of former Trump associates, including Hope Hicks, Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon, all of whom would create hearings featuring performances that would resonate beyond the Beltway.

And a captivating audience could be postponed in the coming weeks. Felix Sater, the main negotiator of Trump's unsuccessful attempts to build a Trump tower in Moscow, had already agreed to testify, but his appearance was postponed to the publication of the Mueller report.

"We need to put some color in the Mueller report and really reach a conclusion with the American people on the appropriate response," said Representative Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Intelligence Committee Member.

"And as long as people are not better acquainted with the details of what happened, it's hard to come up with a unified notion," Himes added. "Certainly, in my district and across the country, there is ambivalence about the proper accountability mechanism of the president. As in the 1970s, we need to do more work and better understand what has happened. "

With the never-ending stream of news, each audience could also follow new revelations, giving lawmakers a rare chance to put pressure on key players. For example, just hours before Barr was called to testify on Wednesday in the Senate, it appeared that Mueller had sent him a letter in which he expressed his dissatisfaction with the Attorney General's initial description of his report.

In a few minutes, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Candidate for the Presidency who will be interviewing Mueller as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, tweeted: "Barr will have to answer for this at our hearing. Update my questions!

The high-level audience formula has worked for Democrats in the past.

When Michael Cohen, a former Trump attorney and personal fixer, testified in February, it was an appointment-making session. Trump exasperated by the revelations of the public hearing and Cohen's appearance opened up new avenues of inquiry. Democrats in the House and New York authorities have summoned documents relating to Trump's financial records, based on Cohen's responses.

Some Democrats who were in the trenches of surveillance argued that the strategy should not be considered by 2020.

"Their responsibility is to be methodical and to follow the facts," said Phil Schiliro, former Obama legislative director at the White House and former Democratic councilor to the House, chaired by Henry Waxman, then president. of the Observatory. "It's not something that happens quickly."

Even Democrats in the House are worried about the short time they have to win as they face a Trump White House ready to wage numerous vigil battles in the courts.

The California representative, Eric Swalwell, a White House candidate for 2020 and a member of the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, said in an interview that it would not take much for Trump to "waste his time" in documents and democratic testimonies.

Others warn that Democrats might seem overzealous and even create compassionate witnesses at a much publicized parade of audiences.

"Do you really want to put Hope Hicks on television? She will win that, "said a Washington-based defense attorney who worked on the Mueller investigation.

Several Republicans say that Democrats would have more options for obtaining Trump administration documents, and even documents underlying the Mueller investigation center, if they opened a formal impeachment procedure. So far, this is a stage at which Democratic leaders have been reluctant.

"Frankly, I do not know if it's such a bad thing for Democrats to do it – once you have that information and you explore it, who knows where it's going?" Said Tom Davis, a former Virginia GOP congressman who chaired the House oversight committee.

William Moschella, who ran the congressional affairs office of the Justice Department under the George W. Bush administration, said the current Democratic clamor for documents and testimonies "seems to fuel the fire of the dismissal ", even as party leaders attempt to stay out of the subject. .

"The hill must know that these various unorthodox demands will be rejected and, if so, the deputies will pretend that these refusals constitute a proof of obstruction and that they must defend the institutional integrity of the House, "he said. "To mix metaphors, these things have a way of snowballing."

Democrats oppose the idea that Trump 's trump strategy is detrimental to his chances of reelection.

Democrats expect that they will prevail in court against Trump's efforts to invalidate their subpoenas, including those seeking financial information about Trump.

"If we get the information, it is considered to be breaking the law or supporting a position contrary to the law, and we still get the information, it's not a winning strategy for him." said Representative Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), Senior Member of the Monitoring Group.

And these are the same battles that, according to the Democrats, could still produce the type of smoking gun that goes off at the height of the 2020 campaign.

"I do not think it serves to delay all this," said Swalwell, "because he knows his story, he will see that the courts will rule against him and that the courts take the time to make their case. decisions, etc. decisions could be made at a time when Americans are wondering who they want to lead. "

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.