Witness list for the "Prequel" Gunwalker Scandal hearing is out. Hoisting the Gunwalkers on their own Democrat petard.

There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
For 'tis the sport to have the enginer
Hoist with his own petar; and 't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines
And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet. -- Shakespeare, Hamlet.

17th Century Sketch of a petard.

A petard was a small bomb used to blow up gates and walls when breaching fortifications. The term has a French origin and dates back to the sixteenth century. In a typical implementation, it was commonly either a conical or rectangular metal object containing 5 or 6 pounds of gunpowder, activated with a slow match used as a fuse.

The word petard comes from the Middle French peter, to break wind, from pet expulsion of intestinal gas, from Latin peditum, from neuter of peditus, past participle of pedere, to break wind; akin to Greek bdein to break wind. (Merriam-Webster) Petard remains a French word meaning a firecracker today (in French slang, it means a handgun, or a joint).

The word remains in modern usage in the phrase hoist with one's own petard, which means "to be harmed by one's own plan to harm someone else" or "to fall into one's own trap," literally implying that one could be lifted up (hoist, or blown upward) by one's own bomb. -- Wikipedia.

Announcement here.

Title: Obstruction of Justice: Does the Justice Department Have to Respond to a Lawfully Issued and Valid Congressional Subpoena?

Date/Time: 1:30 p.m. (EDT) on Monday June 13

Location: 2154 Rayburn House Office Building

Testimony will be posted online as it becomes available. The hearing will be webcast live at Oversight.House.Gov.

Witnesses

• Professor Charles Tiefer, Commissioner, Commission on Wartime Contracting

Professor Tiefer was chief litigator for the House of Representatives and was a courtroom advocate in numerous major cases. He served in 1996 as deputy minority counsel of the U.S. House "Bosniagate" investigating sub-committee and in 1987 as the Special Deputy Chief Counsel for the House Iran-Contra Committee. Professor Tiefer has had extensive immersion in investigative processes on diverse issues, including oversight investigations of foreign affairs and government contracting. He was appointed to his current role by Senator Harry Reid.

• Mr. Morton Rosenberg, Former Specialist in American Public Law with the American Law Division of the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.

Mr. Rosenberg specialized in the areas of constitutional law, administrative law and process, congressional practice and procedure, and labor law, and in the problems raised by the interface of Congress and the Executive which involve the scope of the congressional oversight and investigative prerogatives, the validity of claims of executive and common law privileges before committees, and issues raised by the presidential exercise of temporary and recess appointment power.

• Mr. Todd Tatelman, Legislative Attorney, Congressional Research Service's American Law Division

Mr. Tatelman specializes and advises Members of Congress, Committees, and Staff in the areas of Congressional Laws and Procedure (oversight and investigations), Constitutional Law, Transportation Law, and International Trade Law.

I especially like the twist that they are using Dem appointees to testify under oath about how the Dems ran these things. Hoisted upon their own petard, indeed.

Main Justice comments here and David Codrea here.