This is (not) how we do it

If he's not arrested now, then this is how our democracy dies. Because those charged with enforcing the rule of law didn't. This isn't politics, but the corrupt testing the lines of the law. They cross the line without consequence, then what's the law?https://t.co/DSk3nEYvqz

— BadDude.SimoHayha😠 (@ChiefCovfefe) May 17, 2019

This isn't an episode of "CSI," and the case doesn't begin and end in 60 minutes.

I love these headlines. They CANNOT reject a subpoena, they can decide to BREAK the law by not complying with it and face the legal consequences. https://t.co/ktAYz9cRUZ

— Ale (@aliasvaughn) May 17, 2019

Because actually, they can.  A Congressional subpoena is not a court-backed subpoena, and a court subpoeana is not equivalent to an arrest warrant.  Failure to comply with a subpoena in a court case can take months to turn into contempt, and longer after that to become criminal contempt. Failure to respond to a subpoena does not lead immediately to jail. Despite any political animosity, it is still a government of laws, and an important part of that is due process.

Think of the famous speech from "A Man For All Seasons," and consider you are the one pursuing the devil by cutting down all the laws.

Except Trump isn't the devil, and we don't need to cut down our forest of laws to get to him. We just need to let the legal system work. And a Congressional subpoena has to be enforced by a court. Which means any arrest has to come as the result of a court decision (absent any exercise of Congressional "inherent contempt", which might well wind up in court, too). Which means our democracy is not dead, it's working.

This is how we do it.