Radio Recap - Inquiry Rules: Surrender Your Constitutional Rights and Maybe You Can Speak

The House Democrats put forward the rules for an impeachment inquiry. Surrender your constitutional rights and maybe you can speak.

On today’s Jay Sekulow Live we discussed the rules that are contained in the impeachment inquiry resolution that the House is going to vote on tomorrow.

On Fox News, Senator Lindsey Graham had the following response:

In the history of the country we’ve never had the Intelligence Committee participate in an impeachment inquiry. Under the resolution they’re going to pass tomorrow the President’s counsel cannot participate in the Intel Committee inquiry.  So, the President is denied right to counsel and Republicans can’t call witnesses without Schiff agreeing, so this whole thing is a sham.

These rules don’t create retroactive due process. This is a denial of due process. There’s some real sleight of hand going on here.

Adam Schiff and the other committee chairs have all the power here. The rules only allow whatever due process that Adam Schiff and his fellow committee chairs deem appropriate. Remember that Adam Schiff lied about contact with the so-called whistleblower.

They have tried to write in the rules what looks like due process but it is not. It’s a denial of due process. Basically, they are saying we’ll invite you in but if we don’t like what you’ve got to say you then you’re out of luck.

House Judiciary Ranking Member Doug Collins described the resolution this way:

So now they’re just trying to cover their backside with proposals which, it’s really interesting, they’re going to give the President some ability to weigh in during the Judiciary Committee but not the Intel Committee. This is not about due process for this President.

They are adding to the rules at the end of the game. Most of the witnesses have already testified and there’s no possibility of cross-examination. This is just politics all the way down.

ACLJ Senior Counsel and Director of Policy Harry Hutchison summarized the situation perfectly:

My sense is that this is a nakedly political and procedurally defective process. In essence the Democrats have created a process which is designed to prevent even the appearance of fairness. So there’s no due process. There’s no appearance of fairness.

The Intel Committee, based on Adam Schiff’s leadership, provides no opportunity for the President’s Counsel to participate and limits the ability of witnesses to answer questions provided by the minority. Essentially Adam Schiff wants to shield witnesses from answering specific questions, such as did they have prior contact with him or members of the committee before their testimony.

It’s procedurally defective. The Democrats are ensuring that no due process is extended to the President.

This process is a farce in a real way.

You can listen to the entire episode here.