With a few exceptions, such as the demand for waivers by the Office of Governmental Ethics, the Trump administration has already defied many demands, including requests by congressional committee members and Democrats in a policy that was instituted by the White House and the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). The policy apparently is only to answer oversight requests by committee leaders as they are all Republicans.
Grassley demands White House rescind policy
The Senate Judiciary Committee's page posted a letter from Sen. Grassley (R-Iowa) telling the White House to rescind the OLC opinion, saying that while it hurts members of the minority Democratic Party that it also hurts those in the majority.
Grassley said that the White House's policy disrupts the flow of information between the administration and Congress which "frustrates the constitutional function of legislating."
Grassley's letter to the President was at seven pages and went as far as to say that the opinion by the OLC was "nonsense." But rather than attack the President for the opinion, Grassley appeared to go after the President's staff saying that the Trump was being "ill-served" by them. It was reported that last month, White House officials activated their policy telling other agencies in the government to not respond to oversight requests from Democrats over the Trump-Russia investigation that is being conducted by the Justice Department.
Democrats targeted
It's been reported that the OLC wrote a guidance memo which was considered a formal restriction of a flow of information to Democrats. The memo said quite directly that Democrats do not have the authority to conduct oversight without Republican committee delegation. Democrats apparently released dozens of letters on Thursday that they had sent to the administration that went answered.
What might have likely triggered "Grassley's" letter is when Republican members of these committees began to get their requests unanswered as well.
Grassley also went on to say that Congress doesn't treat executive branch officials with such contempt and expects the same in return. He has also made the comparison with the former Obama administration to say that he has had his requests ignored in the past but a policy by the White House that formally restricts that flow of information doesn't "drain the swamp" it actually "floods" it.
It's likely that with the powers Mueller has been given to continue his investigation over the Trump administration that their policy might be targeted. It's unknown at the writing if Grassley has made any progress from his letter.
