The House Majority Leader just said a lot more Trump administration officials could be held in contempt of Congress next week

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WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 20: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), speaks about former Rep. Ellen Tauscher, (D-CA) during her memorial service at the Washington National Cathedral, on May 20, 2019 in Washington, DC. Tauscher who served 12 years in Congress also serving as Under Secretary of State for arms control and international security, died last month at the age of 67. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)Mark Wilson/Getty Images

  • House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the contempt of Congress vote for Attorney General William Barr could include additional high ranking officials from the Trump administration, including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
  • The White House has stonewalled repeated requests and subpoenas for information relating to a host of congressional investigations and probes.
  • Hoyer, who has not backed pursuing impeachment of President Trump, dismissed the notion that refusing to get on board is due to cowardice.
  • Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.

WASHINGTON — House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said "many more" officials from the Trump administration could be included when the House of Representatives votes next week to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress.

Several current and former administration officials are resisting subpoenas from House committees, setting up high-profile showdowns as more Democrats ramp up calls for impeachment each day.

Read more: Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Attorney General Barr in contempt of Congress, one of the most severe congressional actions. Here’s what the historic move means.

In a meeting with reporters on Tuesday, Hoyer said the House would be voting on Barr’s contempt resolution for refusing to turn over an unredacted special counsel report. Hoyer added that the focus would be Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn, whom Trump directed not to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, "but it may include others."

"I see every name who has either refused to respond to a congressional subpoena or a request for documents," Hoyer said. "Or who has been instructed by the president not to respond — is subject to being on that list. I don’t know all of them so I’m not going to try to name all of them."

Hoyer acknowledged that additional names could include Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross as well as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has interceded requests for Trump’s tax returns from the House Ways & Means Committee. The House Oversight Committee has been trying to obtain information from Ross regarding citizenship questions on the 2020 census.

"We could go through an entire litany of names who have been in that category," he said.

Read more: The Mueller probe is over, but here are 6 active congressional investigations into Trump

As it relates to impeachment, Hoyer dismissed accusations that Democrats in leadership are cowardly for resisting rising calls to pursue impeachment. 

"I think every member of Congress is prepared to do what he or she thinks is the right thing to do, period," he said. "Nobody is afraid of this president."

"This business, I hear some people say, ‘You guys ought to have the courage to stand up,’" Hoyer added. "What we ought to have the courage to do is pursue in a constitutional way, holding accountable any and every person to the responsibilities and acting legally within the context of our Constitution. And that’s what we’re prepared to do and that’s what we are doing."

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Source: Business Insider – jperticone@businessinsider.com (Joe Perticone)

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