In Seeking to Join Suit Over Subpoena Power, Mulvaney Goes Up Against the President

[Zorro]

Even in a White House of never-befores, this may be one of the more head-spinning: The president’s chief of staff is trying to join a lawsuit against the president.

Mick Mulvaney works only about 50 steps from the Oval Office as he runs the White House staff but rather than simply obey President Trump’s order to not cooperate with House impeachment investigators, he sent his lawyers to court late Friday night asking a judge whether he should or not.

To obtain such a ruling, the lawyers asked to join a lawsuit already filed by a former White House official — a lawsuit that names “the Honorable Donald J. Trump” as a defendant along with congressional leaders. The lawyers tried to finesse that by saying in the body of their motion that the defendants they really wanted to sue were the congressional leaders, but their own motion still listed Mr. Trump at the top as a defendant because that is the suit they sought to join.

In effect, Mr. Mulvaney hopes the court will tell him whether to listen to his own boss, who wants him to remain silent, or to comply with a subpoena from the House, which wants his testimony. That put Mr. Mulvaney at odds with some other current White House and administration officials who had simply defied the House, citing the president’s order not to cooperate with what he called an illegitimate “witch hunt.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/09/us/politics/mulvaney-trump-impeachment-subpoenas.html

[gab13by13]

1. The judges ruling will be too late

to be a part of the impeachment hearing. Dems need to pressure the judge to expedite his decision.

[drray23]

2. Just trying to get cover and save his ass

When it all goes down. He wants to be able to say he did not ignore subpoenas from Congress but instead asked to courts for guidance.
The fact several of these guys are doing this is a sure sign they see that Trump is going down.