Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, knows who he wants to question in President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial — Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Hawley on Wednesday or Thursday plans to focus on the Democratic House impeachment manager from California and his staff concerning their contact with the Ukraine whistleblower, who remains unnamed. That individual’s complaint about Trump’s actions toward Ukraine to the Intelligence Committee inspector general triggered the impeachment trial.
“After listening to the Dems’ 20+ hours of argument and the rebuttal arguments from @realDonaldTrump, I’ve got lots of questions for the Dems. Like this one: Why did Schiff lie about his contact with the “whistleblower”? More to come!” Hawley tweeted.
Hawley, 40, followed with another tweet: “Two days of questions coming up. And I’ve got lots — about Burisma, Hunter Biden, and Adam Schiff and the backchannel contacts with the “whistleblower” that started all this.”
Schiff, 59, previously claimed he did not know details of the whistleblower complaint and that his staff did not have contact with the whistleblower either. But he later conceded this was not true.
Democrats consider that line of questioning a conspiracy theory that diverts attention from Trump’s actions, including pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up political dirt of former Vice President Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic front-runner.
Hawley is not the only Republican member who wants to ask Schiff about the whistleblower. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina previously told the Washington Examiner that he expects other Republicans, including himself, to ask about this issue.
“I think they’ve brought up a lot of issues [during the House impeachment investigation]. They put people forward to testify in their case. Did any of these witnesses that were presented to us, did they have any contact with the whistleblower? I don’t know? I’d like to ask,” Graham said.
“I think some people may ask about is there a connection between the whistleblower and anybody on the manager’s staff? Yeah, that would be a good question to ask. I also think it’s very relevant who this person is,” Graham added.
Members of the Senate will submit their questions to Chief Justice John Roberts, who will then read the questions aloud to either the president’s legal team or the House impeachment managers over a 16-hour period divided between Wednesday and Thursday.
Trump has been charged by the House with two articles of impeachment — obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. Senators will eventually vote on whether to acquit or remove the president based on these articles.
