This is the Tom Hartman program.

Greetings my friends, Patriots, lovers of democracy, truth and justice,

believers in peace, freedom, and the American way.

There are three ways, basically, that Congress can enforce a subpoena

to demand that somebody come before Congress. And the first is to basically seek a

civil judgment to sue somebody for contempt of Congress. It's a misdemeanor, it's a $100,000 fine, it's a year in

jail. But convicting somebody of this can take years. So that's probably not the option that Congress should follow.

The second option is what I've been talking about in this program forever,

which is that Congress can refer a complaint to the Department of Justice

for actual criminal prosecution or to have the U.S. Marshals or whatever, you know, get somebody

and drag them over to Congress, but that

means you're asking Bill Barr to help out and Bill Barr is you know a Trump

partisan and has made that quite clear. So there's a third option that Congress used as the only way that they

dragged people in front of Congress in the first hundred years of this republic and

they continue to use it right up until 1934 and in 1930 and the

Supreme Court ruled several times during the first 150 years of the United

States that it was totally legal just fine no problem Congress can do this and that is this concept

of what's called inherent contempt that is contempt of Congress you refuse to

show up for a subpoena you refuse to come if you're invited to speak. We are going to hold you in

contempt and we are going to hold the trial not in the court system. Using

federal judges and federal courts we're going to hold the trial here in Congress.

And we're not going to ask for a federal prosecutor.

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