IOPList.Org

Appeals Court Hearing:
Pelosi/Schiff Argue Congress Can Secretly Subpoena
Phone Records of Citizens





(Washington, DC)
–
Judicial Watch today released a transcript of the March 24 oral argument before the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit challenging a lower court
ruling upholding the secrecy of controversial secretly-issued congressional subpoenas
for phone records by Rep. Adam Schiff, Chairman of the U.S. House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence, relating to the impeachment of President Trump.
The appeals court hearing came after a lower court ruling in the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) lawsuit, Judicial Watch v. v Adam Schiff and U.S. House Permanent Select Committee
on Intelligence (No. 1:19-03790)), requesting subpoenas issued by the Committee
on or about September 30, 2019.

The Judicial Watch lawsuit sought the controversial impeachment-related subpoenas
for phone records, including those of Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s lawyer. Schiff
and the Committee are being represented by the Office of General Counsel for the
House of Representatives.

The phone records led to the publication of the private phone records of Giuliani,
Congressman Devin Nunes, journalist John Solomon, Trump attorney Jay Sekulow,
attorney Victoria Toensing, and other American citizens.

Schiff and the Committee claim “sovereign immunity;” “Speech or Debate Clause”
privilege; immunity from FOIA and transparency law; that the records are secret;
and that Judicial Watch and public do not need to see them. Judicial Watch is appealing
a lower court decision suggested that Schiff and the House have “absolute”
immunity from inquiries about the subpoenas.


Judicial Watch senior attorney James Peterson argued to the three-judge panel:

Quote:This case is about shedding light on unprecedented and illegitimate
congressional subpoenas. The extraordinary subpoenas at issue
represent a supposedly unlimited government surveillance power
and an unlimited ability by Congress to, at their whim, to invade
the privacy of any American.

****


Congressman Schiff secretly subpoenaed the phone records of a
number of private citizens from telephone companies. He did not
provide notice to these individuals in advance that their phone
records were being sought. He did not subpoena the phone records
directly from the citizens. Instead, he subpoenaed the phone
companies for the records, preventing any opportunity for the
private citizens to seek court review, as would happen in any
other case in where the government is seeking this kind of
information about any citizen.

In response to a House attorney’s argument that the materials be kept secret to protect
the privacy of the targets of the subpoenas, one of the appellate judges remarked:

Quote:Well, I do think it’s, if not ironic, noteworthy that one of the
interests you’ve just put forward is the invasion of privacy
when the whole claim of Judicial Watch is that this Committee
invaded the privacy of private citizens in the first place.

“The Pelosi/Schiff House asserts it has an unlimited government surveillance power and an
unlimited ability to invade the privacy of any American with zero accountability and transparency,”
said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The courts should reject Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi’s
corrupt cover-up of the unconstitutional subpoenas that abused the civil rights of
then-President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, journalists and other American citizens.”