The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman spelled out the potentially worrying way Donald Trump and his administration could respond to congressional subpoenas and Democratic attempts to impeach the president if the party wins back control of Congress in the 2026 midterms.
Essentially, via complete and utter stonewalling.
On the latest episode of Legal AF’s “The Court of History” podcast, released Sunday, Haberman said she can “normally” look beyond “the November of a midterm cycle in a lame-duck president’s term and see generally where it’s going.”
But with Trump, whom she has covered for years, she said it’s “something of a black hole,” in part because “when he feels cornered, [he] tends to be more wild.”
“I don’t think we know what it looks like when an entire government doesn’t respond to subpoenas,” she said.
Haberman suggested that if Democrats retake the House and potentially the Senate, although she acknowledged the latter remains “a high bar,” they could seek records from and subpoena various Trump allies, lobbyists, CEOs and tech leaders who have cozied up to him during his second term.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and X owner Elon Musk, who ran the so-called Department of Government Efficiency at the start of Trump’s second term, will likely see “a lot of subpoenas” but “I’m sure that they can draw them out,” she said.
However, Haberman also raised a more fundamental question.
“What happens if the entire Trump administration basically doesn’t comply?” she asked, noting its previous track record.
“Then you have contempt of Congress referrals going to Attorney General Todd Blanche,” she said. “I don’t really see that becoming a big rush on Blanche’s part. So, I don’t know what this looks like, but Trump doesn’t seem especially afraid.”
Watch from the 19-minute mark here: