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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   26107 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 4, 2023

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As an aside, why do people agree to appear for adversarial Congressional hearings like this? I see this happen quite often.

Congress controls the purse and writes regulations. There's a lot things congress can do that these schools won't like.

Also you need to keep in mind the egos of the Presidents of top schools. They assumed they could make short work out of any questions and that lowly congressmen wouldn't dare be hostile to them.

Congress has subpoena power and you can land a contempt charge for ignoring them.

I'm not American. Is this a thing? Do they do it, or is it just a threat?

You can plead the fifth to every question but you do have to show up.

They did it to Steve Bannon.

But generally no, it requires the DOJ to go along with the charges, and they only will for political reasons.

Ignoring a congressional subpoena is the kind of thing that gets you a constant stream of low-level bad press. You have to be Elon or Trump tier to get away with it as a public figure (and if you aren’t a public figure, you are liable to become one).

Check out the table in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contempt_of_Congress. Looks like some of the more recent examples involve Trump aides refusing to appear for the Jan. 6 hearings.

A recent one on that list that comes to mind shows congress holding someone in contempt only matters if the state itself is willing to act.

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