IV 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 111 
To establish defiance of a congressional subpoena for testimony or documents 
by the President as an impeachable high crimes and misdemeanor within 
the meaning of Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
AUGUST 21, 2020 
Mr. LARSON of Connecticut submitted the following concurrent resolution; 
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
To establish defiance of a congressional subpoena for testi-
mony or documents by the President as an impeachable 
high crimes and misdemeanor within the meaning of 
Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution. 
Whereas the congressional power to investigate and oversee 
the executive branch is a cornerstone of separation of 
powers and necessary to expose and deter executive law-
lessness, corruption, fraud, waste, and other serious 
abuses; 
Whereas Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously ob-
served, ‘‘Sunshine is said to be the best of disinfectants; 
the electric light the most efficient policeman’’; 
Whereas due process requires that the law warn before it 
strikes, the House of Representatives has voted articles 
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•HCON 111 IH 
of impeachment against three Presidents, one Cabinet of-
ficer, one Senator, one Supreme Court Justice, and four-
teen subordinate Federal judges without clarifying the 
meaning of ‘‘high crimes and misdemeanors’’ to give fair 
warning to the President, Vice President, and other civil 
officers of the United States; 
Whereas the congressional power of oversight is the power 
preservative of all other congressional authorities; 
Whereas the slowness of judicial adjudications of executive 
privilege or state secrets invocations by the President to 
resist a congressional subpoena is inconsistent with the 
political time frame in which impeachment operates; 
Whereas the congressional powers of investigation or over-
sight of the executive branch are crippled without docu-
ments and testimonies from executive branch officials; 
Whereas the House Judiciary Committee voted an article of 
impeachment against President Richard M. Nixon for 
failing to produce documents and things demanded by 
duly authorized Committee subpoenas pursuant to the 
sole power of impeachment vested by the Constitution in 
the House of Representatives; 
Whereas in pursuit of any legitimate legislative objective, 
Congress is authorized to investigate and to oversee the 
executive branch and to impose sanctions for contempt of 
its processes; 
Whereas legitimate objectives include determinations of 
whether laws have been violated, whether they have been 
properly enforced, whether new laws are needed, or 
whether funds should be appropriated or withheld; 
Whereas Congress is endowed with independent constitutional 
authority to determine whether presidential defiance of a 
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•HCON 111 IH 
congressional subpoena constitutes an impeachable high 
crime and misdemeanor without a court adjudication of 
any claimed executive privilege, state secrets, or other de-
fense; 
Whereas Congress possesses all the contempt powers of Arti-
cle III courts; 
Whereas Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln 
recognized that each branch of government has inde-
pendent authority to interpret the Constitution within 
their respective spheres of power; 
Whereas the United States Supreme Court has never opined 
on whether executive privilege may be invoked to block 
the congressional power of investigation; 
Whereas in United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974), the 
Court subordinated the privilege to the needs of a single 
criminal prosecution; 
Whereas the importance of congressional oversight to our 
constitutional dispensation and separation of powers is 
orders of magnitude greater than prosecution of a single 
criminal case; 
Whereas the Nixon tapes precedent mandates that executive 
privilege is subservient to legislative oversight of the exec-
utive branch; and 
Whereas the absence of a specific definition of an impeach-
able high crime and misdemeanor invites the appearance 
or actuality of partisan exercises of the impeachment 
power which subverts its legitimacy and deters its use: 
Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), 
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SECTION 1. DEFINING PRESIDENTIAL DEFIANCE OF A CON-
GRESSIONAL SUBPOENA AS AN IMPEACH-
ABLE HIGH CRIME AND MISDEMEANOR. 
Congress declares that a President, Vice-President, 
or Civil Officer’s deliberate disobedience and defiance of 
a congressional subpoena for testimony or documents in 
pursuit of Congress legislative or oversight function may 
constitute an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor 
for purposes of Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution 
of the United States. 
SEC. 2. EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE. 
If a President refuses to comply with a congressional 
subpoena under the invocation of executive privilege, the 
failure to engage in good faith by properly asserting that 
privilege with factual and legal specificity shall be taken 
as evidence for finding disobedience and defiance of a con-
gressional subpoena under section 1 of this concurrent res-
olution. 
Æ 
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