After a three-year witch-hunt in the form of one investigation, probe, or inquiry after another, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Monday afternoon that House Democrats will vote Thursday to establish the procedures for their impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump. Having conducted all of this with dishonesty from the very beginning, Democrats now promise “transparency” as they move forward.
As Breitbart reported Monday:
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), chairman of House Rules Committee, said he will introduce the resolution’s text for approval on Tuesday and the panel will move to mark it up by Wednesday.
“As committees continue to gather evidence and prepare to present their findings, I will be introducing a resolution to ensure transparency and provide a clear path forward,” McGovern said in a statement. “This is the right thing to do for the institution and the American people.”
The reference to ensuring “transparency” seems to be an answer to the valid complaints made by House and Senate Republicans that Democrats have thus far kept their “investigation” into impeachment in murkier waters. Indeed, how could they have done otherwise and still continually shifted the focus from one allegation to another?
Already, the impeachment proceedings have meandered from collusion with Russia to obstruction of justice and then on to the infamous phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Who knows where it will wind up? After all, so far, Democrats have palyed one bad hand after another and come up empty: There was no collusion, there was no evidence of obstruction of justice, and the transcript of the phone call shows there was no pressure or quid pro quo involved in Trump requesting that Ukraine reopen the investigation into the illegal dealings of the company that employed Joe Biden’s son Hunter.
McGovern’s line about this being “the right thing to do for the institution and the American people” would be laughable if so much weren’t at stake. This move has nothing to do with what is right for the American people and everything to do with a naked attempt to dress up a witch-hunt and pass it off as a legitimate process.
“Transparency” and Democrats are not even on speaking terms where efforts to impeach President Trump are concerned. As Breitbart reported:
In recent weeks, the House intel panel has interviewed several current and former Trump administration officials inside Capitol Hill’s SCIF room, also known as a sensitive compartmented information facility. Arguing against the secret bunker’s use, Republicans say no discussions involving classified information have occurred inside and assert Democrats are using it to selectively leak excerpts of witnesses’ testimony to the media. Nearly 30 House Republicans attempted to storm the chamber on Wednesday as Laura Cooper, a senior Department of Defense official working on Ukraine, was scheduled to testify.
“Behind those doors they intend to overturn the results of an American presidential election. We want to know what is going on,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who led the group of frustrated Republicans, said at a press conference prior to attempting to enter the secured room.
And:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have introduced a resolution to condemn Pelosi and Schiff’s handling of the impeachment inquiry, which has already garnered 50 Republican cosponsors. Sens. Mitt Romney (R-UT), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) do not support the measure.
“Instead of the Judiciary [Committee] looking at impeachable offenses, they created a process in the Intel Committee that’s behind closed doors, doesn’t provide the president access to the accuser,” Graham said at a press conference last week.
The secrecy and subterfuge with which Democrats have conducted the entire process of “investigating” impeachment is par for the course. With no accountability, there is reason to see these proceedings as little more than a kangaroo court, with Trump’s fate already decided.
As part of the announcement to bring the “investigation” out of the shadows, Pelosi — who only a few months ago poo-pooed the idea of impeachment — wrote a letter to her colleagues that inadvertently exposes the duplicity of her party in this whole process. The letter, sent Monday, begins by claiming that President Trump and his White House counsel have “made the baseless claim that the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry ‘lacks the necessary authorization for a valid impeachment proceeding’” since the House has not voted on procedures for the process. Pelosi further asserts that “the Trump administration has made up this argument — apparently out of whole cloth — in order to justify its unprecedented cover-up, withhold key documents from multiple federal agencies, prevent critical witnesses from cooperating, and defy duly authorized subpoenas.”
Immediately after that, she then gracelessly shifts gears and states, “This week, we will bring a resolution to the Floor that affirms the ongoing, existing investigation that is currently being conducted by our committees as part of this impeachment inquiry.” She added that the resolution “establishes the procedure for hearings that are open to the American people, authorizes the disclosure of deposition transcripts, outlines procedures to transfer evidence to the Judiciary Committee as it considers potential articles for impeachment, and sets forth due process rights for the President and his Counsel.”
Of course, if there were nothing wrong with the way Democrats have been handling this all along, there would be no need for this resolution to establish, authorize, outline, or set forth anything. That she admits that is what her resolution does is an admission that, heretofore, at least some of what she and her merry gang have been doing was not established, authorized, outlined, or set forth.
Make no mistake. There is no genuine investigation taking place; The impeachment process which is even now gaining steam is a base continuation of the same old witch-hunt that started before President Trump even took office. And the promises of Democrats of transparency notwithstanding, the real work of this witch-hunt will remain in the shadows. People like Nancy Pelosi and her merry gang of liars operate best there.
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