Partisan contempt of Congress citations intensify public contempt for Congress

“You say you want retribution,” the Beatles might have sung. Instead, they said “revolution.”

In Congress, they’re the same thing: What goes around comes around. Congress and the President Trump have both become adept at finding new ways to do unto others as they have had done unto them.

In the last few years, Congress and presidents have become more punitively partisan. When majority control of either branch changes, the new majority party tends to focus its energy on going after the opposition rather than on forging better public policy.

This may account for the paucity of new legislative initiatives to address national problems. It may also account for the marked increase in partisan investigations on Capitol Hill as well as presidentially directed prosecutions of its former critics.

This is not a new phenomenon. The old saw, “Don’t get mad, get even,” has been around for most of our history. But the expanded use of political recrimination and retribution is worrisome.

One area where it is clearly expanding is in congressional investigations. Although majority-controlled committees in Congress have always used their oversight powers to investigate the past policies and stewardship of their opposition party predecessors, today’s inquiries are both more personal and more punitive in nature. Some have referred to this development as the weaponization of politics, aimed more at exacting revenge and engaging in partisan one-upmanship for electoral gain.

At least in Congress, unlike in the executive, there are certain rules and practices prescribed for ensuring some modicum of fairness toward the minority party. But the fact remains that the majority sets the agenda for what investigations it wants to conduct, what witnesses to call, and the contents of its final reports. The minority can call its own witnesses and submit minority views to the final report. 

There was a time when some committee investigations, hearings and final reports were more bipartisan in nature, but that has become more infrequent in today’s polarized Congress. Roll call votes have become more common on everything from subpoenaing witnesses to amending reports, and especially for approving criminal contempt citations for recalcitrant witnesses.

The latter step not only requires a majority vote of the committee, but of the full House as well. It is a serious matter since a criminal contempt charge is certified to a U.S. attorney who has prosecutorial discretion as to whether to present it to a grand jury for potential prosecution. If a witness is found guilty by a court for refusing to respond to a subpoena for testimony and or documents, he or she can be fined up to $100,000 and/or imprisoned for up to 12 months.

In the 116th Congress (2019-2020), the Democratic House found two Republican administration officials, Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, in contempt for refusing to respond to subpoenas for testimony and documents on a proposed citizenship question on the census questionnaire. Neither was prosecuted. 

In the 117th Congress (2021-2022), the Democratic House found four members of the Trump team in contempt for refusing to testify before the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Two of the four — Stephen Bannon and Trade Representative Peter Navarro — were indicted, tried and convicted and spent time in prison. The other two, Mark Meadows and Daniel Scavino, were not indicted.

In the Republican-controlled 118th Congress (2023-24), Democratic Attorney General Merrick Garland was cited for contempt for refusing to produce taped interviews by Special Counsel Robert Hurt with Joe Biden regarding classified documents. Garland’s Department of Justice refused to seek an indictment.

In the current Republican-controlled 119th Congress (2025-26), former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton refused to comply with House Oversight Committee subpoenas in its investigation into the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. The committee approved contempt citations for both. When the committee threatened to take its criminal contempt report to the House for a vote, the Clintons reversed course and agreed to appear voluntarily to answer questions in closed session, under oath.

So the contempt of Congress power has been wielded by both parties in a partisan manner, even though most contemptors are not prosecuted by the Justice Department. Both Congress and the Department of Justice realize that the game is mostly political. What they fail to recognize is that the public sees right through it all as a childish game of tit-for-tat that turns the Constitution’s oversight role on its head and sends Congress’s public approval rating spiraling downward to single digits.

Don Wolfensberger is a 28-year congressional staff veteran culminating as chief of staff of the House Rules Committee in 1995. He is author of, “Congress and he People: Deliberative Democracy on Trial” (2000), and, “Changing Cultures in Congress: From Fair Play to Power Plays” (2018).

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