Noah Feldman, Columnist

Testify or Not? It’s a Legal Pickle for Trump Officials

The impeachment inquiry presents a quandary for diplomats caught in the Ukraine scandal

October 18, 2019 at 11:00 AM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Adam Schiff, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and serial subpoena issuer. — Adam Schiff, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and serial subpoena issuer.
Photographer: Win McNamee/Getty Images

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Your boss, the president of the United States, directs you not to help Congress in the impeachment inquiry he considers illegitimate. Then you get a subpoena from the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee ordering you to appear and testify under oath — or face contempt charges if you don’t. Other than call a lawyer, what are you supposed to do next?

For growing number of Trump administration officials, this isn’t a hypothetical situation. Since White House counsel Pat Cipollone’s Oct 8 letter refusing Trump administration participation in the House impeachment inquiry, five current or freshly resigned foreign policy officials have chosen to testify before the inquiry despite being told to keep quiet. Meanwhile, some officials under subpoena haven’t yet agreed to testify. And the White House has so far blocked the release of many, but not all, of the documents subpoenaed by the House.