“You’ll just have to wait and watch. [Contempt is] certainly one of the avenues that we could pursue,” Sen. Richard Burr said Monday. | Getty Burr: Flynn could be held in contempt But Senate GOP leaders are reluctant to go after Trump's former national security adviser after he refused to comply with a subpoena.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr is not ruling out holding Michael Flynn in contempt of Congress as President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser continues to stonewall lawmakers.

Flynn’s lawyer informed the Intelligence panel Monday that Flynn would not honor a subpoena for a list of his interactions with Russian officials in the run-up to last year’s presidential election. And Burr said his committee has “plenty” of options to respond.


“You’ll just have to wait and watch. [Contempt is] certainly one of the avenues that we could pursue,” the North Carolina Republican told three reporters on Monday evening. “It does us no good to have people insist on pleading the Fifth if you’re out trying to get information. The only thing I can tell you is immunity is off the table.”

Burr said Flynn’s denial of his request is nonsensical.

“All I’ve asked him for is documents. I don’t know how you can plead the Fifth on a document request,” he said.

Burr and ranking Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia will make the decision in tandem. Warner told reporters they are keeping “all options on the table.”

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Though Burr is loath to rule out anything, senior party leaders are more hesitant to trigger an intense fight between the former Trump administration official and Congress. Such a conflict could escalate tensions between the GOP Congress and Trump, who continues to speak highly of Flynn.

The issue of whether to hold Flynn in contempt is dividing Republicans — and also leading to comparisons with the hard-line stances many of them took against Obama administration officials who defied congressional requests for testimony and documents, including former Attorney General Eric Holder and former IRS official Lois Lerner.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, who called for Holder to resign in part for stonewalling Congress, said he could not find fault with Flynn’s decision because “you can’t criticize anybody for invoking a constitutional right.” He said Flynn’s decision was different than that of Lerner, who was found in contempt of Congress by the House for asserting her Fifth Amendment rights.

“The Fifth Amendment provides you an absolute right against self-incrimination, so it’s something he’s entitled to do,” Cornyn, a member of the Intelligence Committee, said of Flynn. “There’s a lot of different sources involving the Russian connection to the election, so we’re pursuing all available sources. We’re not going to be deterred by that.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a former Judiciary Committee chairman, said it would be a “waste of time” to haul Flynn before the Intelligence Committee simply to see him repeatedly stonewall inquisitors.

“They may have to do that just to let him know there’s some consequences to this. But I don’t fully understand why he would invoke constitutional privileges, because he’s a good guy,” Hatch said. “I think he’s worried about getting mistreated by the law.”

Other Republicans said they believe the Senate should enforce its subpoena but would not go so far as to call for a contempt of Congress vote.

“The subpoena needs to be enforced, and hopefully it will be,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a member of the Senate Intelligence panel. Added Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.): “He needs to come in front of the committee, honor the subpoena.”

The Senate Intelligence Committee slapped Flynn with a subpoena earlier this month after he declined to provide information voluntarily. The committee is looking into Flynn and other Trump associates as part of its larger investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election, which including allegations of collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign.

Flynn, who was a top Trump campaign surrogate and served as national security adviser for 24 days before being fired for misrepresenting his communications with Russia’s ambassador, alerted the committee on Monday he would not comply with the subpoena, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

“The context in which the committee has called for General Flynn’s testimonial production of documents makes clear that he has more than a reasonable apprehension that any testimony he provides could be used against him,” Flynn’s lawyer, Robert Kelner, wrote in a letter to the committee. “Multiple members of Congress have demanded that he be investigated and even prosecuted.”

If Flynn continues to defy the committee, Senate leaders would face a choice of whether to vote to hold him in contempt. The contempt citation could then be sent to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution or to federal district court for civil enforcement.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a member of the intelligence panel, said it looks as if Flynn “might be seriously guilty” by pleading the Fifth and needs to take the committee’s opportunity to clear the air.

“We have to use every means that we have available to us through the law,” said Manchin, who prefers to seek a contempt citation only if Flynn continues to ignore the panel. “The guy needs to come in for him to have any type of credibility whatsoever.”

“I don’t know what the best way to handle it is, honest to God,” added Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), an ex-officio member of the committee. “We’ve got to insist on his testimony but he does have the right to take the Fifth Amendment. … We are limited in what actions we can take.”

And some Republicans said they would simply follow the lead of the Intelligence panel.

“I want the Intelligence Committee to be successful,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio). “Whatever they think is best — I’m going to follow their lead. Sometimes contempt is the right way to do it. Sometimes there’s other ways to do it.”

