Robert Reich: Congress Should Be Ready To Arrest AG Barr If He Defies Subpoena

“If Mr. Barr does not show up,” the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Sunday, “we will have to use whatever means we can to enforce the subpoena.”

"What could the Committee do? Hold Barr in contempt of Congress—under Congress's inherent power to get the information it needs to carry out its constitutional duties. Congress cannot function without this power.
Under this inherent power, the House can order its own sergeant-at-arms to arrest the offender, subject him to a trial before the full House, and, if judged to be in contempt, jail that person until he appears before the House and brings whatever documentation the House has subpoenaed."

"When President Richard Nixon tried to stop key aides from testifying in the Senate Watergate hearings, in 1973, Senator Sam Ervin, chairman of the Watergate select committee, threatened to jail anyone who refused to appear. Congress hasn’t actually carried through on the threat since 1935—but it could.
Would America really be subject to the wild spectacle of the sergeant-at-arms of the House arresting an Attorney General and possibly placing him in jail?"

"Probably not. Before that ever occurred, the Trump administration would take the matter to the Supreme Court on an expedited basis. Sadly, there seems no other way to get Trump to move. Putting the onus on the Trump administration to get the issue to the court as soon as possible is the only way to force Trump into action, and not simply seek to run out the clock before the next election."

https://www.newsweek.com/robert-reich-arrest-william-barr-attorney-general-supboena-congress-1408786