The Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee was acting as “Fantasy Island” in its grilling Tuesday of former Trump 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, according to ranking member Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga.
“Today’s charade is yet another waste of time and money. Our constituents sent us all here to do a job – secure our borders and keep our intellectual property safe from China’s theft,” he said in remarks prepared for the hearing. “That job was to come up with legislation to actually solve core issues and save lives while preserving Americans’ Second Amendment rights.”
The committee’s chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., has termed it the first official hearing of what he describes as an impeachment investigation. However, an impeachment inquiry can begin only with a vote of the full House. And if impeachment charges were to be referred, the Republican-controlled Senate likely would not convict.
Nadler and his committee are focusing on 10 incidents special counsel Robert Mueller referenced in his report as possible evidence of obstruction of justice. But Mueller left it to the Justice Department to decide whether or not to refer charges, and Attorney General William Barr and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded the evidence was insufficient.
Lewandowski wrote on Twitter just before the hearing: “Excited about the opportunity to remind the American people today there was no collusion no obstruction. There were lots of angry Democrats who tried to take down a duly elected President. Tune in. #Senate2020.”
AP editorialized that Lewandowski was “echoing Trump’s characterization of the Mueller report” and that “isn’t fully accurate.”
Mueller, AP said, “found that Trump could not be exonerated on obstruction of justice,” but that prosecutors are never tasked with establishing exoneration. They are responsible to review evidence and file charges if the evidence is sufficient.
“The hearing underscores what has been a central dilemma for House Democrats all year — they have promised to investigate Trump, aggressively, and many of their base supporters want them to move quickly to try to remove him from office,” AP reported. “But the White House has blocked their oversight requests at most every turn, declining to provide new documents or allow former aides to testify. The Republican Senate is certain to rebuff any House efforts to bring charges against the president. And moderate Democrats in their own caucus have expressed nervousness that the impeachment push could crowd out their other accomplishments.”
Collins said in his opening statement: “Welcome to Fantasy Island, where a rogue committee can ignore the will of the House of Representatives and the express wishes of the American people.
“Now, nothing stops the chairman from calling this whatever he wants. I can say my shirt is green all day long, but I don’t expect observers to believe me any more than Democrats should ask people to believe this hearing means that the impeachment train is actually leaving the station. I suspect the chairman will not convince a court to ratify his semantic games either or award this committee with special privileges that come when the House of Representatives — which represents the American people — actually authorizes an impeachment inquiry,” Collins said.
He noted the House has not voted to approve an impeachment proceeding against the president.
“Now, this committee is certainly within its rights to hold oversight hearings, and we’ve held plenty over these past several months. One hearing had as its star witness John Dean, a convicted-felon-turned-TV-pundit who used his appearance to reinvigorate a sleepy cable career. In July, of course, we heard from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who simply confirmed that his report — available to the public for months — was his testimony and that his investigation hadn’t been hindered in any way.”
Collins said there are more urgent issues to address.
“Despite these hearings and Special Counsel Mueller’s warnings about Russian interference, this committee still has not held a hearing to examine legislation to prevent Russian election interference. I have asked the chairman twice in writing to hold such a hearing, but, so far, he has not. In reality, this committee has done close to nothing to substantively advance the ball with its so-called ‘investigation.'”
He also undermined some of the rhetoric of the Democrats.
“Despite the chairman’s consistent claim that the president is fighting all his subpoenas, today we have before us Corey Lewandowski, the president’s former campaign manager. Mr. Lewandowski has previously testified voluntarily before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He has previously testified voluntarily before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He has previously testified voluntarily before the Special Counsel’s Office, and every member here has had access to the FBI summary of that interview for months.
“Yet, instead of inviting Mr. Lewandowski to testify voluntarily before this committee, the chairman subpoenaed him, and, despite that unnecessary provocation, Mr. Lewandowski is here and willing to answer our questions, which I suspect he will be hearing for the third or fourth time, and to which I suspect he will be giving the same answers a third and fourth time.”
Nadler is one of the most diehard advocates for prosecuting the president and has tried numerous angles.
He said just this week he believes “impeachment is imperative.”
Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy charged that the real work Congress needs to do isn’t getting done because of the Democratic majority.
“It’s an imaginary impeachment. Nobody in America wants this. There are no facts for it. And here’s Nadler who campaigned to become chairman on the whole basis that he’d be best for impeachment, the day after the election,” he said.
In a column for The Hill, Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, noted the division among Democrats.
“Before abruptly ending a press conference this week, an annoyed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi snapped, ‘Why is it that you are hung up with a word over here when lives are at stake over there?’ The word, of course, was ‘impeachment,’ and reporters kept asking about it because the House Judiciary Committee approved something that may or may not be the start of an impeachment investigation. When reporters persisted in asking what the vote meant, Pelosi feigned shock and dismissed them as ‘the only ones who are so into this.'”
However, he pointed out that the fact the House has not formally voted on impeachment could be a problem.
“The reason is simple. Democratic leaders never intended to impeach Trump. But after winning control of the House in 2018, in part on the expectations they would impeach, they had to give every appearance of wanting to do so without actually doing it. Their new strategy was to investigate every possible allegation against Trump, including those predating his presidency. The information uncovered could be used in the 2020 election while letting the clock run out. Pelosi could declare that time was up and that voters would decide the matter,” he explained.
Turley warned that the House is “burning time and energy” in its attempts to get redacted special counsel report information and carry out an impeachment process without a vote.
“House Democrats are continuing with a strategy of ‘planned obsolescence’ of impeachment failure designed to occur just before the 2020 election. Even if the House prevails in court, the grand jury information it is seeking would not materially change an impeachment effort, beyond wasting time to guarantee its failure. Whatever the House Judiciary Committee process is, it lacks the focus, urgency, or credibility to be an impeachment. Indeed, the glacial pace of this process over the last two years makes kabuki look like an action film,” he said.
