GOP Rep. Rogers on Impeachment: ‘Shameful,’ ‘A Rigged Sham of an Inquiry’

There are many questions surrounding the handling of the so-called impeachment inquiry by Democrats under the direction of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and they “why” and “how” of the process was described as “shameful” by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL).

During an appearance on Huntsville, AL radio’s WVNN on Tuesday, Rogers raised some of those questions by noting the contradiction in the closed-door proceedings of the inquiry by the House Intelligence Committee under the direction of Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA). Rogers described the process as “shameful” but noted that transcripts were available to members of Congress and were not limited by secrecy.

“Shameful, just shameful — it’s political,” Rogers said. “Everybody knows it is. The fact that they’re having these interviews behind closed doors is indefensible. This is not classified information. In fact, we were told just a little while ago that the transcripts of these interviews are available for any member of Congress to go down and read, and we can come out and talk about them. If we can come out and talk about them, then why can’t they just have the things in public? Or disclose the transcripts?”

The proceedings bucked impeachment precedent and according to Rogers, was done so to prevent President Donald Trump’s lawyers and congressional Republicans from having a more significant role in the process.

“They are doing this in secret because they don’t want Republicans to call their own witnesses,” he continued. “They don’t want us to be able to cross-examine. They don’t want the president to have lawyers in the process. It’s just really a rigged sham of an inquiry. It is my hope that we can get them to — if they’re going to proceed with this, give us a vote on the floor just like was done with Nixon and like was done with Clinton — with fair rules that allow us to subpoena witnesses as well, call witnesses, cross-examine witnesses. [I am] just very disappointed from an institutional standpoint that the Speaker of the House has allowed this to happen.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor