CHAIRMAN: “AN ABSOLUTE COVER-UP BY THE WHITE HOUSE”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Sep. 17, 2019) — 1:12 p.m. EDT – Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski will testify to the House Judiciary Commitee in a hearing titled, “Presidential Obstruction of Justice and Abuse of Power.”
PBS is providing live-streaming of the hearing, as is the Committee.
Chairman Jerrold Nadler opened the meeting at 1:16 p.m. by instructing committee members not to direct “personal” questions aimed at Donald Trump.
Nadler announced that two other potential witnesses, Richard Dearborn and Rob Porter, were “blocked” from appearing by the White House, following the same White House edict for former White House Counsel Don McGahn.
The hearing is part of his quest to determine whether or not “Articles of Impeachment” should be drawn up, Nadler said.
Nadler called it “an absolute cover-up by the White House.”
Reading from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, Nadler said the committee wishes to “learn more about” whether or not Lewandowski and others were instructed to attempt to have Mueller removed and other examples of “obstruction of justice” which Nadler believes were demonstrated by Trump.
Nadler claimed that the White House has claimed “crony privilege” by saying that Lewandowski’s conversations with the president are exempt from disclosure since Lewandowski has never been a government employee for the Trump administration.
“We are looking at corruption and abuse of power more broadly,” Nadler said at 1:23, “…because no one is above the law, not even the President of the United States.”
Ranking member Doug Collins then spoke, poking fun at the “new rules” Nadler declared to be in force. “We had Mr. Mueller here, a whole day of it,” Collins exclaimed. He claimed the Democrats’ “problem” is that they “don’t have the votes” to begin impeaching Trump.
Collins argued that the Democrat committee majority does not wish to have McGahn testify privately, but only in public. He called the hearing “a show,” then said that the witnesses were subpoenaed for 10:00 a.m., not 1:00 p.m. “I don’t understand how Judiciary gets this wrong,” he exclaimed at 1:30.