Tag: House Justice Committee

Trump’s counsel says president won’t participate in House Judiciary’s first impeachment panel, calling it unfair

Washington Post logoAs the impeachment inquiry moves into a critical week, President Trump and his Republican allies are debating the degree to which the president should participate in a process they have spent more than two months attacking.

On Sunday evening, White House counsel Pat A. Cipollone told the House Judiciary Committee in a five-page letter that Trump would not participate in its first impeachment hearing, scheduled for Wednesday. The invitation from Chairman Jerrold Nadler “does not begin to provide the President with any semblance of a fair process,” Cipollone wrote.

Four constitutional scholars — three chosen by Democrats, one by Republicans — are expected to testify on the standards for impeachment. Nadler (D-N.Y.) told Trump he had until 6 p.m. Sunday to notify the committee that he or his attorneys would attend; he has given Trump until Friday to decide whether to participate more broadly in the impeachment process.

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Fact-checking lawmakers’ claims during the Mueller hearings

Washington Post logoOver the course of nearly six hours, former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III testified before two House committees. Here’s a guide to some of the claims made by lawmakers that were factually shaky or misleading.

“The special counsel’s job — nowhere does it say that you were to conclusively determine Donald Trump’s innocence, or that the special counsel report should determine whether or not to exonerate him. It’s not in any of the documents. It’s not in your appointment order. It’s not in the special counsel regulations. It’s not in the OLC opinions. It’s not in the Justice Manual. And it’s not in the Principles of Federal Prosecution. Nowhere do those words appear together because, respectfully, respectfully, director, it was not the special counsel’s job to conclusively determine Donald Trump’s innocence or to exonerate him. Because the bedrock principle of our justice system is a presumption of innocence.”

— Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Tex.)

Ratcliffe essentially accused Mueller of overstepping his bounds. For various reasons, Mueller did not file charges against Trump. Yet the report lays out substantial evidence of potential obstruction of justice by the president.

View the complete July 25 article by Salvador Rizzo and Glenn Kessler on The Washington Post website here.

Nadler says Mueller should testify ‘to a television audience’

Nadler said the special counsel should testify, even if he gives no new information about the Mueller report’s findings

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler plans to have Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III testify publicly before Congress even if he doesn’t say anything beyond what is in his 448-page report on the Russia investigation.

“We will have Mr. Mueller’s testimony,” the New York Democrat said in response to a question Friday on WNYC radio.

Nadler’s push to bring Mueller before the panel for a televised hearing is the latest twist in what had been weeks of negotiations with the special counsel about his testimony. Mueller made a surprise on-camera announcement Wednesday at the Justice Department with a clear message that he did not want to testify.

View the complete May 31 article by Todd Ruger on The Roll Call website here.