On Sunday’s broadcast of ABC’s “This Week,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said “all transcripts” from the House’s impeachment inquiry will be made public.
Jon Karl asked, “Congressman, why is this all happening behind closed doors? Why the secrecy? This is not a classified deposition. Why not do it out in the open?”
Himes said, “First of all, all transcripts will be scrubbed for classified information and made available for the American public to see. There’s two reasons why these depositions are happening behind closed doors. One reason is when you’re talking to ambassadors and other U.S. government officials who have regularly had access to classified information, you need to be able to talk about that and then say this has to be redacted because it involved classified information. That’s the most important reason. The second reason is, when you’re interviewing people around the president, political supporters of the president, you don’t want them to be able to look at each other’s testimony and coordinate testimony. These are a group of people who have shown they have no problem whatsoever lying if they think it serves their interests. You don’t want to give them the opportunity to look at what they’re saying and coordinate their stories.”
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