House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) on Friday sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, demanding she immediately release full transcripts of all depositions taken sense the Democrats launched their impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump six weeks ago.
Dear Speaker Pelosi,
Despite the vote in the House on October 31, House Democrats continue to conduct the partisan effort to impeach the President in secret. Your duty to the Constitution and the American people, as well as fundamental fairness, requires that you immediately release the full transcripts of all depositions taken since you pronounced the beginning of an impeachment inquiry on September 24, 2019.
The selective leaking in which the House Intelligence Committee has been engaged must end immediately and the full and complete record must be provided for the American people to see.
In addition, to the extent that you make any redactions in any of the transcripts, Members of the House must be supplied copies of the full and unredacted transcripts, as provided for in House Rule XI, Clause 2(e)(2)A.
Sincerely,
Liz Cheney
Member of Congress
Cheney's letter came after she blasted Democrats for formally passing their impeachment resolution, primarily on party lines.
According to the Wyoming representative, Democrats cannot fix a process that was broken from the get go.
"They’ve now created a record over the course of the last several weeks with witnesses they selected. We know there are circumstances where Chairman Schiff told witnesses not to answer questions that our members were asking," Cheney explained. "We know there have been circumstances where our members have attempted to go read transcripts and they’ve been told by staff members that they’re not allowed to go read those transcripts. This is a process that has been fundamentally tainted."
"The President has had no rights inside these hearings, his counsel has not been able to be present. So for them now to claim that they are going to open this process up, which, by the way, this resolution does not do?—the resolution says that they’re going to continue doing what they want to do. It gives authority for open hearings, but they cannot go back and fix what has been a fundamentally tainted and unfair record," she said.
Cheney argued that Democrats have put politics over national security by telling the House Intelligence Committee to focus solely on their impeachment inquiry.
"We are at a moment where the nation faces grave, significant, ongoing threats, and she [Pelosi] has completely neutered the Intelligence Committee," Cheney said. "She said they must be focused on a partisan impeachment process and not their oversight obligations that we have as a body, that we have as an important branch of this government, and they’ll be held accountable for that.
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