House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said impeachment hearings could start as soon as next week, meaning committee members would work through a scheduled congressional recess.
“We’re going to be trying to schedule hearings, witness interviews, we’ll be working on subpoenas and document requests. We’ll be busy,” the California Democrat told Politico Friday.
If the White House is uncooperative, “it will strengthen the case on obstruction,” Schiff told CNN.
A hearing could happen as soon as Friday, but it’s unclear whether it would be public. Details depend on whether the whistleblower who sounded the alarm on President Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is permitted to testify to lawmakers and if the committee obtains the full inspector general report on the whistleblower’s complaint.
The complaint revealed concerns from White House officials about how the transcript of Trump’s conversation with Zelensky — in which Trump asked the Ukrainian leader to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter — was handled, as well as a series of other actions the administration took relating to Ukraine.
Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testified to the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday that he handed over the complaint to the Justice Department before giving it to Congress.
Maguire said he did so because he was concerned that Trump’s phone calls with a foreign leader were protected by executive privilege. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel determined that the complaint was not of “urgent concern,” and thus did not have to be given to Congress, despite the Trump-appointed inspector general deeming the complaint “serious” and “urgent.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday morning that Attorney General William Barr had “gone rogue.”
“Where they’re going is a cover-up of the cover-up,” she said.
