How come there are no consequences for ignoring a congressional subpoena?

[DetlefK]

How often have the Democrats in the House sent out subpoenas? And how often have they been simply ignored by the Trump-administration, with no consequence whatsoever?

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/14/1945135/-House-Judiciary-Democrats-threaten-a-subpoena-if-AG-Barr-doesn-t-testify-by-June

Meanwhile the Democrats are threatening to subpoena Barr...

WHY WOULD BARR GIVE A SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Democrats never go through on their threats, so why THE HOLY MOTHER-FUCKING FUCK would Barr care about being subpoenad. He will simply say No, the Democrats will whine about it and that's that.

And even if they somehow magically get him to testify, he will simply lie under oath and then walk away. The Democrats will refuse to do anything to hold him accountable for perjury, will whine about it and that's that.



EDIT: And don't tell me about the Seargent-at-Arms of Congress. When has that guy ever arrested somebody for perjury or for refusing a subpoena?

[Chainfire]

1. Laws are for the little people

It is all about power. The Republicans have it, the Democrats don't.

[Igel]

2. Because the courts are loath to get in between tussles between the two other branches of government.

When Holder was subpoenaed and said no, the courts kicked it back to Holder and the House and said to work it out. It was worked out when then the House flipped Democratic and quickly it was negotiated that the entire thing would be dropped. Otherwise it had been an outstanding subpoena for something like 7 or 8 years.

(The other trick that the two branches have is fairly simple. House/Senate issue subpoena, executive declines. Somebody, perhaps aides, suggest they talk. They talk. The Congress makes clear what it wants and why, builds trust that there's a valid reason and it's neither "give us these 25 million pages and we'll find something" nor "we want this document so we can leak it to the press tomorrow"; the executive finds out where the lines are and gets them adjusted to suit. It's agreed what use would be made of the materials. The House/Senate revise their subpoena to accord with what was agreed to, and then the executive announces merrily that it's going to comply with the subpoena. We hear the first line and the last line, and the rest is like making sausage. The Holder subpoena was deemed pure gotcha politics, and so Obama waited and Holder held on for two years after Obama was out of office.)