Donald Trump has been accused of being a totalitarian leader. That is ruling under the most severe form of authoritarian government. He fails to recognize the House of Representatives and the Senate as a co-equal branch of government. POTUS also remade Attorney General (AG) William Barr’s job from being the people’s attorney into the president’s own AG. Barr directs all aspects of U.S. intelligence.
The president has just ordered four current/former members of his administration to not honor House subpoenas to give depositions on Monday. These included National Security Council lawyers John Eisenberg and Michael Ellis, according to CNN.
To get an idea of what a totalitarian government is like, these countries have/had a totalitarian government:
- The Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics.
- The Greater German Reich.
- The National Legionary State (Totalitarian fascist regime which governed Romania for five months, 1940-1941.
- The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
- The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
- The People’s Republic of China.
- The Democratic Kampuchea (temporary Cambodian state in the late 1970s).
- The People’s Socialist Republic of Albania.
Eisenberg and Ellis will join Assistant to the President and Senior Adviser to the acting White Hosue Chief of Staff Robert Blair and Associate Director for National Resources, Energy, and Science at the Office of Management and Budget Brian McCormack.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry had been scheduled for a Wednesday slot, but he changed his mind and will not join the House’s witness list. He would have given a closed-door deposition, according to an Energy Department spokesperson last week.
Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has been involved in the closed-door depositions and said:
‘This isn’t an Agatha Christie novel — this is a shakedown. I think we have established an overwhelming case. But we have got very careful prosecutors on the staff who rightfully want to leave no witness unexamined.’
Raskin continued, noting that the committee where he sits wanted “every detail to be nailed down:”
‘and they want every detail to be nailed down as much as possible. That’s good. But at a certain point we have to say … there’s just been an overwhelming case that high crimes and misdemeanors have likely been committed against our country.’
Blair attorney Whit Ellerman told CNN this weekend:
‘Blair is caught between the assertions of legal duty by two coequal branches of government, a conflict which he cannot resolve.’
In addition, two additional OMB officials Michael Duffey and Russell Vought, would not be appearing before the committee.
House investigators have decided to not let this White House tactic to slow them down. The House members intend to move on to the next phase of the impeachment inquiry. Many Democrats in the House think they already have enough depositions to go on to the public hearings phase.
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
