Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) is empowered to block testimony from Republican-called witnesses within ongoing “impeachment inquiry” hearings held by the House Intelligence Committee he chairs, explained Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), in a Thursday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.
Scalise pointed to “impeachment inquiry procedures” laid out in a House resolution giving Schiff the ability to reject witnesses proposed by the Republican minority.
“There are sections of the resolution that allow the [Adam Schiff] to literally have veto power over Republican witnesses,” Scalise noted. “There’s a section in the resolution that allows the chairman to literally kick the president’s legal counsel out of the room out of the room if he so chooses, not because there has been some wrong that was done, [but] just because, all at the whim of the chairman.”
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Scalise contrasted the aforementioned procedures with those of previous impeachment proceedings with former presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
“Under the Clinton and Nixon impeachments, both sides had the ability to call witnesses [and] to subpoena witnesses,” Scalise stated. “Also, the president had the legal power to have his legal counsel in the room to question witnesses. All of that, today, is at the discretion of [Adam Schiff].”
Schiff is also empowered to obstruct Republican cross-examination of witnesses, he explained.
“Just this week, [Adam Schiff] directed the witness to refuse to answer certain questions that were asked by Republicans on the committee,” Scalise said. “So [Adam Schiff] literally is telling the witness not to answer certain questions Republicans are asking. That happened this week.”
Lack of public access to Schiff-led proceedings in the sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) allows Democrat coordination with news media outlets to go unchecked, he observed. Witness testimony, he added, contradicts “mainstream media” characterizations of the hearings’ developments.
“It’s almost like [this is] the only way that [Democrats] can get their false story out, because if this was open to the public, my goodness, all the things that we’re hearing about what happened in that room completely go against all the reports that we’re reading in the media, because the media is only getting the things that Adam Schiff leaks to them,” Scalise remarked.
He continued, “I took a few [Republican] members down there a week and a half ago, and we went just to see what was going on, and it was amazing how as soon as we walked in the room — and we were there just to watch, we’re voting members of Congress — [Adam Schiff] gets the witness, runs out of the room, and they shut the thing down, because they don’t want people to see what’s going on in there.”
Democrats’ impeachment efforts, Scalise said, are an attempt to “nullify” the 2016 election of President Donald Trump.
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