This is going to be a big week in the House as it relates to the Democratic clown show “impeachment inquiry” that has, to date, taken part entirely behind closed doors.
The public hearings phase is set to begin Wednesday, where House Intel Committee Chair Adam Schiff will be calling who he feels are key witnesses to testify:
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) announced on Twitter Wednesday that his committee will hold its first public impeachment hearings next week.Driving the news: On Wednesday, Nov. 13, the committee will interview top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine Bill Taylor and State Department official George Kent. On Friday, Nov. 15, the committee will interview former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.Why it matters: The move from closed-door interviews to public testimony is a significant step in the impeachment inquiry and an indication of how quickly the House investigation into Trump and Ukraine is moving.
“Committee sources” tell Axios, linked above, the goal of the hearings is to keep things “narrowly focused” in order to help “accelerate the impeachment timeline”:
Between the lines: Committee sources tell Axios’ Alayna Treene their goal is to keep the public hearings narrowly focused so that it’s both easy for the American public to follow and helps accelerate the impeachment timeline. They’re focused on bringing in the career officials who revealed the most about Trump and Ukraine — meaning don’t expect many new names or faces as the inquiry shifts to a more public setting.
Let’s really read between the lines here. The fact that they want to “accelerate” public impeachment proceedings goes against everything House leaders including Schiff, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler have been saying for months regarding the Ukraine call controversy and the Russia collusion investigation: that there is no rush to judgment and no rush to impeach.
Of course, that was an obvious lie, but the sources telling Axios their goal is to speed up the process just confirms it.
Secondly, Taylor, Kent, and Yovanovitch will go first because they are supposedly the Democrats’ star witnesses who Schiff and Co. believe will provide to the public the most damaging case against President Trump.
The most revealing information from the Axios report, however, is in how the committee seeks to keep the public hearings “narrowly focused.” The stated reason is to make it easier for the public to follow and to speed up the process.
The real reason is because Democrats want to obstruct House Republicans from their strategy of broadening the inquiry via their selection of witnesses in an effort to show the American people there are justifiable reasons why President Trump would want the Joe and Hunter Biden issue and the DNC server issue further investigated by Ukrainian officials.
After all, if the case can be made that Trump’s requests were legitimate and served American interests, then the reasons given for impeaching him will evaporate.
The witness list, released Saturday, shows Republicans want Hunter Biden himself to testify. Here are other notables:
-Devon Archer, former board member of Burisma Holdings
-Alexandra Chalupa, former DNC staffer
-David Hale, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
-Nellie Ohr, former contractor for Fusion GPS
-The so-called whistleblower and any individuals they relied upon in drafting their secondhand complaint
Read the full Republican witness request list here.
Andrew Bakaj, one of the attorneys for the whistleblower, told CNN that subjecting the whistleblower to in-person questioning is not going to happen, but that his client is open to answering questions in writing:
Following the GOP’s request, the whistleblower’s attorney reiterated that his client is only willing to answer questions in writing.”My client’s complaint has been largely corroborated. Nonetheless, I have offered to have my client respond in writing, under oath, and under penalty of perjury to Republican questions,” Andrew Bakaj said in a statement to CNN.Bakaj said he is “concerned this is part of a larger effort to unmask my client’s identity” and said urged members of Congress to “step back and reflect on the important role whistleblowers play in our constitutional republic’s ability to oversee itself.”
The problem with that statement is that the whistleblower’s complaint has not “been largely corroborated.” Furthermore, there are questions that need to be answered beyond what has been asked of other witnesses behind closed doors, such as the nature of the whistleblower’s interactions with Schiff’s staff, and his working relationship with Joe Biden when he was vice president.
Schiff has indicated he will reject most if not all Republican witness requests, including the ones for Hunter Biden and the whistleblower to testify. The rationale given for denying their request for the whistleblower to testify was that it was “redundant and unnecessary.”
It was a rather odd statement to make considering that just a few weeks ago, Schiff stated he was ready to hear what the whistleblower had to say:
Though Schiff has made it clear the House is committed to a Democratic show trial sham instead of a more transparent process where all facts are laid out on the table for the public to draw their own conclusions, there’s still the very real possibility that when the Senate gets their go at this (because we all know that’s coming), some inconvenient truths will come to light that will blow this sham wide open:
Bring it on.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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