The House hinted Friday that it might have to arrest former White House Counsel Don McGahn and other Trump administration officials to force the federal courts to decide whether congressional subpoenas can be enforced against current and former executive branch officials.

Lawyers for the House Judiciary Committee made the statements in a petition to have the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rehear its lawsuit to force McGahn to testify as part of a probe into the actions of President Donald Trump.

[House suit seeking McGahn testimony tossed by appeals court]

Last week, a three-judge D.C. Circuit panel ruled that Congress doesn’t have the right to have courts enforce its subpoenas, and instead pointed to political tools the House can use to check a president who blocked congressional oversight efforts.

The House lawyers wrote Friday that those tools “only invite further constitutional brinkmanship and are poor substitutes for judicial subpoena enforcement,” such as using Congress’s inherent contempt power to arrest officials who could then bring legal challenges to their detention.