By Byron Tau
WASHINGTON—In an escalation of the showdown between the Trump administration and Congress, a House panel will vote this week on whether to demand testimony from a dozen current and former administration officials and confidants of President Trump who were involved in some of his business and personal dealings.
The Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee will consider a resolution on Thursday that would allow subpoenas for documents and testimony from the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as former national security adviser Mike Flynn, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.
In addition, the panel will authorize subpoenas against several people who participated in a hush-money scheme to buy the silence of two women who alleged sexual encounters with Mr. Trump. The committee is seeking testimony from the editor of the National Enquirer tabloid and chief executive of the magazine’s publisher, as well as a lawyer who represented one of the women. The panel is also seeking to force testimony from a number of Trump confidants including former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former White House staff secretary Rob Porter.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat and the chairman of the panel, said the subpoenas were part of an investigation into what he called “obstruction, corruption and abuse of power by the President and his associates,” as well as an inquiry into the administration’s immigration policies.
House Democrats’ efforts to conduct oversight of the Trump administration, and the administration’s resistance, has escalated in recent months. Mr. Trump has said his administration is fighting all subpoenas from Congress, and several current and former administration officials have been ordered not to discuss their time in the administration with congressional committees even in the face of subpoenas, under the theory that their conversations from their time in government were privileged.
In addition, the Trump administration and lawyers representing Mr. Trump personally have gone to court to fight an array of demands from Congress, including for records from his businesses and Mr. Trump’s personal financial information.
A judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that a congressional subpoena for some of Mr. Trump’s financial records was valid. And a different federal judge has authorized members of Congress to collect evidence in a civil trial alleging that Mr. Trump is in violation of an anti-corruption provision of the constitution.
A Justice Department official said the administration is cooperating with congressional demands, noting the department has turned over more than 1,200 pages of documents related to immigration policy and would provide more in coming weeks.
The subpoenas being considered by the Judiciary Committee this week represent one of the most aggressive moves yet by the panel, demanding testimony from Mr. Trump’s family and closest confidants. Several of the subpoenas are directed at individuals who participated in payoffs of former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal and adult-film actress Stephanie Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels—two women who alleged affairs with Mr. Trump.
The panel will authorize subpoenas against David Pecker, chief executive officer of National Enquirer publisher American Media, as well as Dylan Howard, the editor of the tabloid. Federal prosecutors obtained a guilty plea from Michael Cohen, the president’s former personal lawyer, last year in part on campaign-finance charges related to the payoffs.
Mr. Cohen, who has described himself as Mr. Trump’s “fixer,” said he made both payments “for the purpose of influencing the election” and acted at the direction of “the candidate,” referring to Mr. Trump.
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