Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) released the following statement on scheduling a markup of a resolution to authorize a subpoena for Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker on February 7, 2019:

“For the first two years of the Trump Administration, Congress allowed government witnesses to dodge uncomfortable questions. That era is over. In an abundance of caution—to ensure that Mr. Whitaker both appears in the hearing room on Friday morning and answers our questions cleanly—I have asked the Committee to authorize me to issue a subpoena to compel his testimony.

“To be clear, I hope never to use this subpoena. Weeks ago, we gave Mr. Whitaker a list of questions we hope to ask him about his communications with the White House and his refusal to recuse himself from oversight of the Special Counsel’s investigation. If he appears on time and ready to answer those questions, the subpoena will be entirely unnecessary.

“I intend to be fully transparent about this process. I shared my plans with Ranking Member Collins last week and, when he expressed reservations, we scheduled this authorizing resolution for a markup. There need not be surprises here. We have been quite public about our intention to obtain this information from Mr. Whitaker.”

The Committee also announced it will be marking up H.R. 948, the “No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act of 2019,” bipartisan legislation introduced by Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), Chairman Nadler, Subcommittee Chairman David N. Cicilline (D-RI), and Subcommittee Ranking Member Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI).

###