White House Sends Blistering Response to Nadler: No, We Aren't Participating in Your Bogus Hearings
By: Beth Baumann
Thank you President Trump and your legal team for standing up to the bullies in the House majority. Thanks for exposing their star chamber for the illegitimate action that it is. Schiff and Nadler deserve nothing but public ridicule and humiliation and our sheerest and most utter contempt.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The White House on Sunday notified House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NJ) that they would not be participating in the Committee's impeachment hearings scheduled for Wednesday.
"As you know, this baseless and highly partisan inquiry violates all past historical precedent, basic due process rights, and fundamental fairness," White House Counsel Pat Cipollone wrote to Nadler.
In his letter, he blasted Nadler for giving the White House little time to respond to the letter and for scheduling the hearings "during the time that you know the President will be out of the country attending the NATO Leaders Meeting in London."
Cipollone also suggested the hearing is a waste of time because it will focus on the "historical and constitutional basis of impeachment," and will feature academics, not witnesses relating to Ukraine or the current impeachment inquiry.
Nadler sent another letter with a different deadline, something Cipollone said provides absolutely no details for the White House.
"Again, your letter provided no information whatsoever as to what the schedule will be, what the procedures will be, or what rights, if any, the Committee intends to afford the President," he wrote. "In other words, you have given no information regarding your plans, set arbitrary deadlines, and then demand a response, all to create the false appearance of providing the President some rudimentary process."
Cipollone said the White House would respond further if Nadler provided any further information.
He did, however, blast Nadler for making it seem as though he was affording Trump and his legal team any sort of due process. According to Cipollone, Nadler isn't following past precedent, like during the Clinton impeachment saga. When the Clinton impeachment hearings took place, the president's legal team had two-and-a-half weeks to prepare and allowed the president to have a say in a hearing date. None of those things have been done in this case, Cipollone said.
The White House Counsel slammed the Democrats for the moves they've made thus far, specifically House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff's (D-CA) refusal to allow Trump to participate in closed-door hearings.
"There, Chairman Schiff attempted to concoct a false narrative through selective citation of the testimony of witnesses of his choosing, after vetting them during closed-door depositions hidden from both the President and the American public," he wrote. "The President was not allowed to present evidence, to call witnesses, to cross examine witnesses, or to even see transcripts until weeks after testimony had been taken, and he was allowed absolutely no participation in the public hearings that followed. Further, witness requests made by Republicans were denied. In addition, certain questioning of the witnesses who did testify was censored by Democrats."
Cipollone pointed out the clear difference between the Nixon and Clinton impeachment proceedings and the Democrats' current impeachment push. In the past, both parties had subpoena powers. In the Trump impeachment inquiry, only Democrats have that power and any Republican requests have been stifled. He argued that this will cause "long term institutional harm." The announcement comes after Nadler sent the White House a letter telling them they have until 5 p.m. EST on December 6th to let the Committee know whether or not Trump's legal counsel will participate in the hearings. The Committee Chairman sent a similar letter to Ranking Member Doug Collins (R-GA) letting him know he has the same deadline to send a list of witnesses to Committee Democrats to review. Although Republicans can issue subpoenas and interrogatories, Nadler has the final say in whether or not they can and will be issued.
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Nadler sent another letter with a different deadline, something Cipollone said provides absolutely no details for the White House.
"Again, your letter provided no information whatsoever as to what the schedule will be, what the procedures will be, or what rights, if any, the Committee intends to afford the President," he wrote. "In other words, you have given no information regarding your plans, set arbitrary deadlines, and then demand a response, all to create the false appearance of providing the President some rudimentary process."
Cipollone said the White House would respond further if Nadler provided any further information.
He did, however, blast Nadler for making it seem as though he was affording Trump and his legal team any sort of due process. According to Cipollone, Nadler isn't following past precedent, like during the Clinton impeachment saga. When the Clinton impeachment hearings took place, the president's legal team had two-and-a-half weeks to prepare and allowed the president to have a say in a hearing date. None of those things have been done in this case, Cipollone said.
The White House Counsel slammed the Democrats for the moves they've made thus far, specifically House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff's (D-CA) refusal to allow Trump to participate in closed-door hearings.
"There, Chairman Schiff attempted to concoct a false narrative through selective citation of the testimony of witnesses of his choosing, after vetting them during closed-door depositions hidden from both the President and the American public," he wrote. "The President was not allowed to present evidence, to call witnesses, to cross examine witnesses, or to even see transcripts until weeks after testimony had been taken, and he was allowed absolutely no participation in the public hearings that followed. Further, witness requests made by Republicans were denied. In addition, certain questioning of the witnesses who did testify was censored by Democrats."
Cipollone pointed out the clear difference between the Nixon and Clinton impeachment proceedings and the Democrats' current impeachment push. In the past, both parties had subpoena powers. In the Trump impeachment inquiry, only Democrats have that power and any Republican requests have been stifled. He argued that this will cause "long term institutional harm."
Bogus hearings?
Exactly. That is what they are.
What would you call an inquiry in which the verdict has already been decided?
Come on Vic, you're smart enough to know that any verdict has to come from the Senate. You think the Senate has already decided?
Steve, the US Senate didn't create the inquiry based on something the President said. You can't have a conviction without a consensus. Pelosi even told us that impeachment shouldn't go forward without a consensus. This "inquiry" hasn't convinced anyone that what the President said rises to the level of impeachment. The most damning part of it is what Iv'e already said - democrats wanted to go down this road before any witness was ever heard. The manner in which it was done is also damning. Don't believe me? Just wait until November.
Now Vic, you know the democrats will just say we heard from the witnesses during the Intel Committee hearings and that should be all that's needed. Now I'll admit I didn't get to listen to all of the hearings and I didn't read all of the released documents but I didn't see much of anything that leads me to believe that President Trump should be impeached. As an independent it sure seems to be as if this is a group hunting for a crime. I know there will be people on this site that will call me all sorts of names but I've got a thick skin. I'm just tired of this constant fight and wish that Washington would just get back to the business of governing the country.
So don't we all, but we have to ultimately confront the left or they will overturn the 2016 election.
This surely seems guilty...
No guilt whatsoever. No sense in legitimizing the illegitimate by showing for the show trial.
You probably think someone invoking the 5th is guilty, too, right?
No, this sounds like Nadler is trying to railroad the President.
Nadler is a hack.
Railroad the 'president'?
LMFAO!
For someone who proudly proclaims they don't read, how can you manage to quote my exact words?
It's a mystery!
The whole administration is guilty or they would testify.
Like John says below, if they're not guilty, tRump wouldn't prevent them from testifying.
Cipollone is a great American. 🇺🇸
Who?
Who?
The information you seek is in the article you didn't read.
[Deleted]
That’s not the way presumption of innocence works in Red State America.
How is it that you find all far right wing criminals to be "great Americans"?
The same way the left finds all far wing left criminals to be "great Americans".
See how that works?
Anyone defending this shit show being put on by the Democrats had better buckle in for a rough ride when the next Democratic President takes over and the Republicans control the House.
Hell, the Democrats might even get their wish of a President being impeached before he takes the oath of office if Biden gets elected.
I wish he had walked in, said "go pound sand...." and left
They can't argue that Trump is innocent, so they try and make it about everything else.
If Trump were innocent he wouldnt be preventing the key witnesses from testifying.
His cult members dont care though.
We are proud to be the deplorables cult. We know that no high crimes or misdemeanors or any other illegality took place so there’s no reason to show them in the house anything other than the contempt they so richly deserve.
That says it all right there. Sad.
If that were true the administration would be readily testifying and allowing all the primary witnesses to explain how innocent Trump supposedly is.
Well, except for the law and the constitution, but I guess when you're a religious conservative who doesn't give a shit about either, you can twist your reasoning to approve of just about anything.
The hearing are not bogus. Anyone with more than half a brain, a smidgen of civics education and understands the meanings of English words would have watched those hearing's and concluded like the majority of Americans did, that Trump did in fact extort a foreign government for personal political gain. Whether you care or not is just a measure of your American patriotism, with those who don't care proving themselves better friends of Putin and fascism than upholding American laws and our constitution. Those who have decided their partisan opinions are more important than our nation and our constitution are excusing this obviously abhorrent joke of a President as he disrespects our intelligence agencies, gold star families, minorities and millions of liberal and progressive Americans who are no less American than any religious conservative and arguably far more American than those rabid swastika wearing, confederate flag waving Trump supporters we saw in Charlottesville with their tiki torches and MAGA hats chanting "Jews will not replace us!".
There is no question, based on the facts presented during the impeachment hearings, that Trump abused the office of the President for his own personal political gain, it's not really even in question anymore. The only thing left to decide is what to do about it which will set the precedent for future Presidents. With Republicans desperately trying to ignore Trumps obvious wrongdoing, they are setting the precedent for a Democrat President to just openly ask all our foreign allies to investigate any potential political opponent, so who ever is the incumbent will have carte blanche to use the power of the Presidency to intimidate, investigate, disparage and attempt to politically destroy any of their opponents, much like Putin has done in Russia's "democracy in name only" political system. Supporting Trump is supporting a Putin like fascist oligarchy, it's really that simple. If you want a white Christian police state where the white Christian leaders can use the FBI, CIA and Justice department as their own political arms like the KGB of old and the FSB of today, then you will no doubt defend dishonest Donald vociferously. If you want free and fair elections, if you want truth and justice, if you believe every American vote should count and that we are better when we embrace our diversity and strongest when we come together as one people behind a single cause, then you will condemn this criminal President. We saw a glimpse of it briefly after 9/11 when it didn't matter if you were Democrat, Republican, Independent, we were all Americans who were attacked that day. If that happened today I wonder if the Trump religious conservative supporters in rural America would feel the same kind of empathy for the New Yorkers they daily disparage and seem to despise simply because of where they live. I rather doubt we'd see the same kind of reaction, especially if it turned out Putin was behind the attack. Seeing the partisan rhetoric today I believe we'd see the white nationalist conservatives arguing Putin was just doing Gods work destroying the wickedness that New York represents to them. How times have changed.
He has much more important things to do John...the business of the nation and the people.
Trump is upholding the Constitution and the law, and the Dems continue to undermine both.
You mean he something to do more important than producing any possible evidence of his innocence? Is there a pole dancer's convention at one of his golf courses this week?
Really, exactly what is he doing?
Who would he give it to, so far, that would pay any attention? And he doesn't have to prove innocence in the US system. The system has to prove guilt..........beyond a reasonable doubt..................unless something changed over the weekend.
I don't know, the public? The Republican members of the impeachment committee?
The hearings exposed the fact that what's "important" to dishonest Donald is getting re-elected. That's why he was apparently unconcerned with helping Ukraine or getting them to crack down on corruption. All Trump wanted was a public announcement of investigations into Biden and the 2016 debunked Ukraine election meddling (an FSB invented talking point often repeated by our own President) that he could use in his own upcoming election. Either Putin is a Jedi master using a mind trick on Trump, Trump is just really stupid, or Trump is a true Kremlin Manchurian candidate, or perhaps a bit of all three. Mueller wasn't able to prove criminal conspiracy, and everyone who knows Trump says he's simply too stupid to collude, I guess we have to go with Jedi mind trick. "Russia didn't hack your election, it was Ukraine...!".... "Yes, Russia didn't hack our election, Ukraine did it...", "These aren't the IP addresses and mountains of other evidence gathered by US intelligence agencies proving it was Russia that you're looking for, Russia is your friend...", "This isn't the evidence we're looking for, Russia is out friend...". I really hope it isn't a pee tape that Putin has on Trump, I don't think anyone actually wants to see that, but I guess it's existence is far more probably than Putin having Jedi powers.
In case you don't know the President of the United States will be in Europe for NATO, a trip which was scheduled over a year ago.
Right now he is talking trash at the NATO summit in England. He said Macron made a nasty comment about NATO, the same NATO he called obsolete. Considering how nasty he has been at rally's and on twitter, he has no right to call out someone for one remark. He is the epitome of kettle/pot. I bet most of the attendees must be thinking "Doesn't this ahole ever shut up?"
I know one thing - the NATO members are finally starting to pay their fair share.
It's called a win!
I never disputed the fact that they should pay more. My point of contention is him using every opportunity to talk trash. Remember when he was doing it in France with the graves of the dead as a backdrop? The man is as uncouth as it gets.
Are you saying that NATO is immune from criticism?
NATO was created when Joe Stalin and the Soviet Union had been granted a generous sphere of influence in eastern Europe at a time when Europe was still recovering from the devastation of World War II. Over the decades NATO has served the western alliance well, but much has changed over the decades:
Europe was rebuilt via the Marshall Plan.
The Soviet Union has fallen and Germany has been re-united, eastern Europe is free again.
Most of the European nations are part of a common economy which is greater than the economy of Russia.
Most of the European nations have socialist economies with little money set aside for national defense while dependent on the US military & NATO for their security.
It is time for a reevaluation of how the alliance should work. That is not "trash talk."
Not at all. NATO's house is far from clean. Again, my complaint is that it is disgusting that Trump uses these meetings to make it about him and trash talk others. I just saw a sound byte where he is bitching about Schiff and called him a liar which is laughable considering the vast amount of lies he has told.
Don't like the way Trump talks, then don't vote for him.
As for Trump bitching about Schiff calling him a liar; sometimes the truth slips out of even Trump's mouth. Schiff is a piece of shit. The amount of giant whoppers Schiff has told he has no room to call anyone else a liar. Maybe you can force him to finally release that damning evidence he said he has on Trump for the last two years.
The way Trump talks is not an impeachable offense. If Trump is so hated it should be easy for the Dems to defeat him in a fair and open election. So why are they all scared shitless?
That's called projection.
Prove me wrong about Schiff's massive whoppers. All you need to do is get Schiff to release this damning evidence he has been supposedly sitting on for over two years.
Till then Schiff is a lying piece of shit; that is abusing the system to get the results he desires.
No, tRump is the lying sack of shit.
Projection is all you got.
Hard to tell from here..........pot? Kettle?
They are scared because democrats can’t win fair and open elections anymore.
Speaking of projection . . .
Just like the leftist cult members don't care about due process, precedents, or anything else else when it comes to Trump. They have been calling for his impeachment since before he took office. They have broken every rule to try and achieve their objective.
Sorry, but Trump defeating Hillary is not an impeachable offense.
but to them it is....the crime of the century!
Actually it was/is.
Impeachment is a constitutional process and the rules are being followed to the letter. There is nothing illegal, unfair or unconstitutional about this process, including the rules put in place by republicans. They complained they couldn't call witnesses (not the time in the process during investigations) and now they refuse to. They won't let witnesses testify. Trump has committed bribery and extortion and has abused the power of office. He has used the power and assets of the USA for his own personal political purposes. If there were ANYTHING to prove his innocence he would be doing it. He can't because he is guilty. Everything he is doing is detrimental to the USA. From the Syria withdrawal to trying to corrupt Ukraine. And all has benefited Putin.
Not by accident Trump loves the poorly educated.
Someone on another seed claimed tRump said he liked the 'low information' voters, trying to make up a new narrative.
The 'president' never said 'low information', he said he loved the 'poorly educated'.
Then he must really love secular progressives an awful lot...
Look up 'poorly' and the context he used it. Perhaps they are so dense they don't even know when they are being insulted and used. Information is our friend. Blind loyalty is not.
Just curious--do Democrats NOT love the poorly educated?
Perfect. Let's hide and wait for the answer shall we?
Dems want everybody educated and have the policies to prove it. Conservatives want to blow up the Dept of Education and cut everything about schools. Cons love the poorly educated because they are easy to manipulate.
It would be rather weird for Democrats NOT to love the poorly educated, seeing as how they make up a sizable part of the Democratic base.
Was the question too hard, thus your refusal to answer?
Just curious--do Democrats NOT love the poorly educated?
Please take note--I did NOT ask about Democratic policies or Republican policies. I didn't ask what Democrats want.
The Dept. of Education has been so successful through the years as it has presided over the lowering of our test scores and world rankings in education. /s
Well, we did get one rather feeble attempt. It was, of course, unresponsive to what was actually asked, though.
Look no further than Betsy Devos - who wants to destroy the agency that she was placed to head (she paid for her position).
Betsy DeVos Wants to Use America’s Schools to Build “God’s Kingdom”
Trump’s education secretary pick has spent a lifetime working to end public education as we know it.
Do Democrats NOT love the poorly educated?
Apparently the question is harder than we could have imagined!
How much did she pay, and who received that payment?
I'm not a democrat and have no idea why you ask me questions are meaningless. I think their policies show they do care for all the population, not perfectly, not everyone, but overall their policies show they do care about educating everybody. Now how the hell does that change one thing I said?
WTF happened to your freaking bootstraps?
She really pays for the republican party to push her into position. Its all easy enough for your to find out much all these people pay for power.
Well, for starters, that post was directed at someone else, not you.
If I want to ask you a question, I will do so directly, not through other people.
I didn't claim you were a Democrat, nor did I say that your answer changed anything, so I have no fucking idea what you are going on about.
What ever happened to letting the people who were actually ASKED the freaking question to answer for themselves?
I mean, you bitched that I dared ask (because for some lame reason you seemed to think the question was to you) and then you answer it? WTF?
It seems like your links would have featured Trump more prominently, seeing as how he was the one who got to pick the Secretary.
As Secretary, what exactly has De Vos done to get your panties in such a wad?
Bootstraps
She supports charter schools and school choice in poor urban neighborhoods.
Idiocy.
I wonder how much they really do love themselves?
Her brother is Erik Prince, head of Blackwater, killers for hire.
What a scummy family.
[Deleted]
Ah, guilt by biological association.
Nothing you say can be considered to be the truth or relevant. You state as facts what can only be considered as allegations...false ones at that.
Speaking of truth - where's that damning IG report you and others kept swearing was going to throw all these Democrats in jail?
You state as facts what can only be considered as allegations...false ones at that. While projecting your bad habit onto others.
Due out December 9th. Patience weed hopper.......................
Yeah we've been waiting for those indictments for a long long long long long long long long long long long long time, at least three years now.
No, no you haven't. Are you afraid it's going to do just the opposite as the Mueller report which was nothing you waited two plus years for? Patience..................
Yes, yes I have.
When was the IG investigation started?
[DELETE] I haven't lied about anything and you are just projecting. You believe Trump or at least push his bullshit, so don't try to pretend you can even tell the difference.
So far, the only ones going to jail are R's.
Well I won't hold my breath for those indictments either.
Trump can't answer questions or define his reasoning. He doesn't know how.
Besides, Trump is 'the Russian puppet'.
Trump doesn't have to do anything !
These hearings are nothing about "Facts", they are just about "Feelings".
As Representative (Kentucky Fried Chicken guy) just noted in this latest "WHITE Democrat Lynching", It "APPEARS" that President Trump did something wrong.
That's been the entirety of this "Liberal" hearing. If it "Appears to be", it "Must Be" !
Even Schifty Schiff in his "Media" announcement before the Nadler Circus reconvenes said.... He's not sure ….. still !
Democrats and their fucking "Feelings".
Now.… Representative Tim Deutch (douche) is announcing his dads grandfather fought in WWII (The Ardennes) and shed Blood for this country, as to why he thinks Trump should be impeached ! He's doing a great job "Leading" the "Academic 3", on what they should speak on.....but asked NO question of the "Academic 3". Democrats "Avoid" Professor Turley when "Crying" to the other "3".
They are about facts, not feelings.
Show us !
It's liberalism by definition..........
"Liberalism - Feelings over intellect disguised as the latter".
ADD:
"I FEEL What's yours....MUST be mine too !"
Fine, don't cooperate. But when you throw away the chance to present any testimony or proof and get busted, don't come crying to us.
When did this country "Change" to "Guilty until Proven innocent" ?