The closed-door impeachment proceedings Democrats are conducting in the basement of the Capitol are running out of cooperative witnesses, and it signals the likely start of long-awaited public hearings as soon as next week.
“Public opinion is everything,” Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama, a pro-impeachment Democrat and member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on NBC Sunday. “I think the American people understand right and wrong. And I think that it’s important that we let them hear for themselves the testimony.”
The closed-door proceedings that began with the Ukraine whistleblower complaint have stalled.
A half-dozen Trump Administration witnesses are refusing to appear for depositions this week, which has halted the proceedings and left the three committees conducting the investigation with nothing to do.
Democrats, at the same time, are eager to begin the public hearing phase of their impeachment proceedings. All of the testimony has taken place so far in a secure hearing room and out of public view.
The House is out of session this week, and when it returns on Nov. 12, Democratic leaders have suggested, long-anticipated public impeachment hearings could begin.
“I would assume there would be public hearings in November,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Bloomberg News.
Democrats summoned the witnesses to help build their case that Trump improperly used his position to coerce Ukraine’s help investigating the 2016 election interference by Democrats as well as corruption allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden, who is now a top political rival.
The House voted last week on formal rules for public hearings, and Democratic lawmakers are becoming increasingly concerned the public are growing bored with impeachment. Polls show impeachment sharply divides voters along party lines.
Republicans have condemned the secretive proceedings and are questioning why Democrats continue scheduling closed-door depositions despite voting last week to begin public hearings.
“We had that vote on Thursday, and four days later, the Democrats are right back at it in the basement of the Capitol having four more depositions secret that the public can’t see,” Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Sunday on CBS’ Face the Nation.
Democrats have very little time to plan and hold hearings this month.
There are only eight legislative days left in November, which would limit public testimony to some time between Nov. 12-21.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Monday that Trump’s move to block the witness testimony would be used to build a case charging the president with obstruction of Congress.
“And we may infer that their testimony would be fully incriminating of the president,” said Schiff, a California Democrat.
The closed-door proceedings stalled on Monday morning when Robert Blair and Michael Ellis both declined to appear despite Schiff issuing subpoenas to them Sunday night.
Blair serves as an assistant to both the president and acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney. Ellis is Trump’s senior associate counsel, who also serves as a deputy legal adviser to the National Security Council.
In addition, NSC lawyer John Eisenberg and Office of Management and Budget Associate Director Brian McCormack also declined an invitation to appear before the committee.
Outgoing Energy Secretary Rick Perry and ex-national security adviser John Bolton are also expected to be no-shows this week, although Bolton said he would testify under certain conditions that are not likely to be met this week or even this month.
Schiff, on Monday, said Democrats aren’t going to wait to gain access to the reluctant witnesses and would instead move on to the public phase of the impeachment proceedings.
“We are not going to delay our work,” Schiff said. “That would merely allow these witnesses or the White House to succeed with their goal, which is to deny, delay, and obstruct.”
