Matt Gaetz Nails ‘Non-Partisan’ Democrat Impeachment Lawyer for ‘Pee Tape’ Tweet Against Trump

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) confronted Daniel Goldman, the Democrat counsel for the House Intelligence Committee, during Monday’s impeachment hearing over a tweet he posted last year attacking President Donald Trump over his so-called “pee tape.”

The tweet (screen-capped below) was a response to President Trump’s criticism of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s impeachment inquiry. Trump had tweeted: “Why aren’t Mueller and the 17 Angry Democrats looking at the meetings concerning the Fake Dossier and all of the lying that went on in the FBI and DOJ? This is the most one sided Witch Hunt in the history of our country. Fortunately, the facts are all coming out, and fast!”

In response, Goldman tweeted: “What lying? Nothing in the dossier has proved to be false (including your pee tape). But we can agree that we all look forward to the facts coming out. Everything that has come out so far has shown you to be an out and out liar (eg Cohen tape, purpose of June 9 meeting, etc).”

Gaetz did not start with the tweet, however. He began by asking Goldman if he thought he was non-partisan. Goldman replied, under oath, in the affirmative: “I am not a partisan.”

Gaetz then asked Goldman’s Republican counterpart, Stephen Castor, if he had ever given political donations. He said no.

When he asked Goldman about his tens of thousands of dollars in political donations, Goldman dodged, attempting to say that he was performing a civic duty: “I think it’s very important to support candidates for office.”

Gaetz then displayed a posterboard with the offending tweet above, noting that the “pee tape” — the “dossier” — had in fact been disproven in several respects, and asked Goldman whether he regretted it.

Goldman declined to do so, but insisted that his inquiry had been thorough. “I would be happy to put my — this investigation up with any of the non-partisan investigations during my ten years as a federal prosecutor.”

“You either regret it, or you don’t. I guess you don’t want to answer the question,” Gaetz said.

Goldman has previously been an analyst on MSNBC and has worked with the left-wing Brennan Center.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.