The Trump administration has spent the past week refusing to give an inch, wielding executive privilege as a shield against every subpoena and request from Democrats.

On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee voted to recommend that the full House hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt for failing to hand over an unredacted version of the Mueller report. Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has repeatedly rebuffed Democratic requests for six years of President Trump’s tax returns, an open violation of the law. Some members of Congress are already threatening to hold Mnuchin and former White House counsel Don McGahn—who has been instructed by the White House to refuse to obey House subpoenas—in contempt, as well.

Meanwhile, Republicans are up in arms about yet another subpoena, sent to Donald Trump Jr. by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr. Trump Jr. has been asked to answer questions about apparent discrepancies between his testimony before three congressional committees and the Mueller report—but Donald the Younger (and, it seems, many Republicans) isn’t keen on appearing.

A place where most Republicans are happy to appear is the Federalist Society. It was there, earlier this week, that Vice President Mike Pence promised to start challenging injunctions leveled by federal courts at a host of Trump administration orders.



Individually, all these developments are troubling, but could be seen as more of the headline-grabbing chaos America has come to expect from the Trump era. But taken together, the events of the past few days represent a coordinated broadside in an administration war on congressional oversight, if not an attempt to fully obliterate the bedrock constitutional principle of checks and balances. It also represents a disturbing pivot, from a White House determined to roll back a century of systemic reforms—through executive orders, conservative judges, and the (very) occasional piece of conservative legislation—to one openly determined to abrogate the system. The White House is doing everything it can to halt any and all oversight. These actions are intended to prevent Congress from fulfilling its constitutionally-mandated duties.

