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David Simas, director of the White House Office of Political Strategy and Outreach, will not comply with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s subpoena for him to testify, White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said in a letter Tuesday to panel Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).“The committee’s effort to compel Mr. Simas’s testimony threatens longstanding interests of the executive branch in preserving the president’s independence and autonomy, as well as his ability to obtain candidate advice and counsel to aid him in the discharge of his constitutional duties,” Eggleston wrote.“In light of those principles, and for reasons set forth below,” Eggleston continued, tipping to advice provided to the White House by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, “Mr. Simas is immune from congressional compulsion to testify on matters relating to his official duties” and will not appear at the hearing Issa’s committee had scheduled for Wednesday morning. The White House also took the rare step of releasing the OLC’s opinion.(Also on POLITICO: Darrell Issa won’t withdraw White House subpoena)But Issa said late Tuesday night that he rejects the White House’s immunity claims and he will still convene the Wednesday morning hearing.The White House has, it contends, provided Issa with “a significant amount of detail about the operations of” the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach and its efforts to abide by the Hatch Act, a law that prohibits most high-level executive branch officials — though not the president or vice president — from engaging in partisan political activities in their official capacities.
