Contempt is not a punishment and is not subject to double jeopardy. Contempt of congress is not that different than contempt of court - it is contempt for a branch of government.
Because congress shouldn’t have to go begging to do it’s job. Trump’s administration proved that criminal referrals for contempt as a means of enforcing subpoenas means that congress cannot hold an administration to account. They have no mechanism even to have their questions answered.
The current approach is that when a person simply declares themselves to be more powerful than a branch of government, that branch of government gets to ask another branch of government if they wouldn’t mind doing something about it, then that second branch gets to go in front of the third branch and try to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this person held the first branch in contempt. And what happens if they are convicted? Say they get prison time.
Suppose they simply decided not to show up for prison? What would happen then?
Would the courts refer them to the DOJ so the DOJ could do an investigation and then bring them to court and try to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they defied a court order? If not, then why do it now? Unless the courts are actually a more powerful branch of government than congress, and a subpoena from a court is a more powerful document than a subpoena from congress.
