Thread by @dcpetterson

On Congress invoking Inherent Contempt--

1) Congress doesn't have a jail to throw people into.
2) They don't have enough bailiffs to chase people around the country to arrest them.
3) The purpose of DOJ and the courts is to enforce the laws. Let them do their job first.

1/6

I get both the impatience and the desire to go full-on authoritarian in a desire to fight authoritarianism. But it never works to burn down the village in order to save it.

Inherent Contempt must be a final resort. We're not there yet.

As for Bannon--

2/6

The 1/6 Committee most likely already has copies of all the documents they want from Bannon, and Bannon's testimony would be useless. He'd either lie or plead the Fifth anyway. Let the legal system deal with him while the Committee gets on with its work.

3/6

What's taking so long? Well, Criminal Contempt requires convening a grand jury, which has to investigate the case before returning an indictment--and probably would want to hold Bannon responsible for a host of other crimes as well. That takes a while.

4/6

Grand jury proceedings are secret--for very good reasons. So no, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING and you won't, not until they're done.

But as I said, that's all likely irrelevant to the Insurrection Committee anyway.

5/6

Keep the goal in mind--the Insurrection Committee needs to reveal what (and who) led to the assault on democracy. In order to protect and strengthen democracy.

Sidestepping democratic norms and institutions is what got us here. We must not do that ourselves.

6/6

PS. Last time Congress invoked Inherent Contempt to arrest someone who defied a Congressional subpoena was 1934. The wrongdoer was confined to a luxury hotel suite Congress rented while they debated what to do with him.

Try to imagine the outrage if they did that today.