Dem
55
Ties
1
GOP
44
No, not to defend themselves in court. They want one to go on offense. While the Oversight Committee will have its own legal staff to handle its own investigations, the House as a whole has a general counsel, who will play a major role in the expected constitutional clash with Executive Branch. House Democrats expect Donald Trump to refuse to allow members of the administration to testify before Congress and also expect him to refuse to provide any documents that have been subpoenaed. They expect maximum stonewalling on everything.
The House general counsel will be the Democrats' top lawyer, the one who plans and executes their legal strategy, keeping in mind how the Supreme Court might rule on the various cases and the implications for a future Democratic president should Republicans take the House in 2028 or 2030.
In addition, the Democrats want to take back the power that the Constitution grants to the Legislative Branch. Trump is likely to refuse to give up a smidgen of power, and there will be endless court battles. The general counsel will be the mastermind who has to oversee all of this and interface with the committee lawyers.
Most previous speakers have come up through the ranks as appropriators. They were experts on where the money came from and where it went. Hakeem Jeffries, a lawyer by training, came up through the Judiciary Committee. This gives him an advantage other speakers didn't have: He understands the law better than they did and can speak Middle English with other lawyers. Another thing he has going for him is the incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who spent 25 years as a professor of constitutional law at American University in D.C. before getting into politics. Raskin was the lead manager in Trump's second impeachment. The general counsel, Jeffries and Raskin are going to be spending a lot of time together plotting their legal strategy. But first they have to hire the general counsel. Fortunately, the search is already underway. Perhaps Jack Smith is available? (V)