(btw, I wasn't being sarcastic).

...or is that just for us peons?

State and Federal criminal charges are no doubt on the way.

They are not in contempt yet as the investigators have agreed to give them more time, however I suspect some of them may be facing contempt charges in the future.

Kelly and Stepien will not be able to get away with pleading the fifth, if they don't release the documents by the time the extension ends they will be charged with contempt. Wildstein got a contempt charge against him for taking the fifth during testimony, but he actually has a much stronger case for pleading the fifth than either Kelly or Stepien do because while he did not testify he did release all the documents that were requested of him including a few that were smoking guns against him. If Wildstein got a contempt charge then Kelly and Stepien will almost certainly receive contempt charges as well if they don't turn over the documents.

The traditional use is to keep somebody from being forced to testify under oath against themselves and that is wholly proper. What they are doing here is the equivalent of denying a search warrant for items that could incriminate. Granted, a search warrant is issued by a Judge based on a criminal investigation and a subpoena does not have a Judge's signature but it is still in regard to the gathering evidence for possible criminal activity.

Keep in mind that what they turn over is reviewed by their own attorney who determines whether it is pertinent to the subpoena and when not that data is redacted.

Because this is a new use there is probably no court ruling so I'm guessing it is just a stall tactic to tie things up in the Court system, possibly stalling things out past 2016. Amazing what high-priced attorney's can pull off.

Seriously, Republicans always get away with this type of shit. George Bush and Dick Cheney should have been impeached and sent to the Hague as war criminals. What happened? NOTHING! Karl Rove helped blow the cover of a covert CIA agent. What did tough Patrick Fitzgerald do? NOTHING! Republicans have been caught red handed stealing elections by having two polling station in inter cities like Cleveland, while they just happen to have dozens of polling stations in suburban Republicans areas. They have been caught throwing out Democratic registration forms and NOTHING EVER HAPPENS! Currently the GOP has websites that look like one is donating to Democrats for Congress, when in reality people are unknowingly donating to Republicans. What will happen? NOTHING!

If all these people got away with the above actions, why does anyone think timid Democrats or Eric Holder's wimpy Justice Department will do anything that will result in real punishment for the bully Chris Christie?

Even if they try, Faux News will scream so much that idiots will start to look at Christie as the victim. Have a nice day!

for this scum.

...and President Obama had not met his deadline, the corporate media would be in full impeachment mode.