Krishnamoorthi Considering Subpoena for Juul Officials

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., said Wednesday he is interested in issuing a subpoena to compel officials of e-cigarette maker Juul to come to Congress to answer questions about the company's marketing practices and about other issues surrounding the dangers of young people and vaping. 

"There's a national epidemic of youth vaping underway," Krishnamoorthi told MSNBC's "Morning Joe," pointing out 25% of high schoolers are vaping, and 5% of middle schoolers are using the devices.

"My wife and I are parents of both a high schooler and a middle schooler," Krishnamoorthi said. "According to the current surgeon general, vaping is dangerous for the brain development of young people. Now, we're seeing mystery illnesses, respiratory illnesses, and deaths, mainly among young people, throughout the country."

President Donald Trump's administration has proposed bans on flavored e-cigarettes, and that is essential because sweet flavors are what is attracting young users, Krishnamoorthi said. 

Congress already has had a two-day hearing, marking the impetus for Trump's proposals, but the documents that have been requested from Juul have not been produced, the congressman said. 

"It turned out during the hearing that we learned that Juul actually paid various school districts to go into schools, to conduct anti-vaping seminars now," Krishnamoorthi said. "When we questioned students at those seminars about what was said, they said, for instance, that Juul representatives claimed that e-cigarettes were, quote, unquote, totally safe and made other claims, which as you know, don't appear to be true."

The lawmaker also talked about Corey Lewandowski's confrontational testimony before Congress, saying that even with the tone of the hearing, the investigation into Trump needs to continue. 

"There are various lines of investigation right now. As you know I'm on the house intelligence committee, and there I think we are basically looking into financial ties between the president as well as other members of the campaign and Russia during the Bob Mueller hearings," said the lawmaker. "One of the things that we learned is that Mr. Mueller did not really get into assessing the counterintelligence risks associated with those financial ties."

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