US House panel authorizes subpoenas for Trump associates

Washington, July 12 (IANS) The US House Judiciary Committee has authorized a dozen subpoenas for associates of President Donald Trump, including his son-in-law and senior White House adviser Jared Kusher, as it pushes probes on obstruction of justice charges against Trump.

The subpoenas authorized on Thursday were targeted at individuals also including former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, reports Xinhua news agency.

Though Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the committee, has not indicated he would issue the subpoenas right away, the party-line vote is likely to set the stage for an escalated battle between the House Democrats and the White House in the wake of the Russian probe conducted by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The investigation, which dominated the headlines for the larger part of Trump's presidency to date, has not produced a definitive conclusion on whether Trump had obstructed justice when he faced allegations that his campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.

The absence of conclusion has opened doors to contradicting interpretations from the White House and the Democrats, fuelling a protracted political battle which saw the House Democrats eager to unearth further evidence by subpoenaing Trump associates.

It's unclear if the White House would block the potentially new batch of subpoenas from the House of Representatives, as it had done in the past.