The contempt resolution now goes to the full House, where it will likely clear on a party-line vote with the backing of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who announced on Wednesday morning that she supported holding Barr in contempt. From there, Democrats would have three options to force Barr’s hand: They could refer the matter to the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., who would decide whether to launch a criminal prosecution of his own boss, the attorney general. Democrats could turn to the courts to enforce the subpoena. Or they could take matters into their own hands and call their sergeant at arms. Raskin himself brought up the arrest option when I asked him how far this confrontation could go, even as he acknowledged that not many members of the House were aware of that particular congressional power, much less supported its use.

The debate over how congressional Democrats intend to defend their constitutional prerogative to oversee the executive branch extends beyond Barr; Donald Trump’s administration is challenging the House’s authority across a range of areas, from the Ways and Means Committee’s bid to get the president’s tax returns from the IRS to the Judiciary Committee’s request to hear from both Mueller and one of his key witnesses, former White House Counsel Don McGahn.

“This is not some peripheral schoolyard skirmish,” Raskin said. “This goes right to the heart of our ability to do our work as Congress of the United States.”

Still, Democrats have been reluctant to launch impeachment proceedings against Trump for fear that they would backfire politically. Would they really send the House’s sergeant at arms down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Department of Justice with instructions to haul the nation’s chief law-enforcement officer to the Capitol, in handcuffs if necessary? House Republicans made no such effort after they voted to hold then–Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt in 2012 over his refusal to turn over documents connected to the “Fast and the Furious” probe.

In our interview on Tuesday, I spoke with Raskin about the Judiciary Committee’s confrontation with the Trump administration over subpoenas and the bubbling debate within Congress over impeachment. Our conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Russell Berman: If the House does vote to pass the resolution to hold Barr in contempt, where would it go from there?

Jamie Raskin: Well, first of all, at that point the contempt finding is complete. In other words, that goes on his permanent record, as you might say. He has been held in contempt of Congress, meaning in contemptuous or contumacious defiance of a lawful order of Congress, okay? So at that point, contempt is complete. However, we still need to enforce the contempt resolution in order to obtain compliance with the subpoena. There are different ways of doing that. There could be a criminal prosecution, but given the object of the resolution, there might be a problem getting the U.S. attorney to act forcefully and with dispatch. But we also have the power to go to court.