Page:Impeachment of Donald J. Trump, President of the United States — Report of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives.pdf/28

 critical to the Committees' investigation testified in publicly televised hearings. All transcripts for each of the seventeen witnesses interviewed or deposed have been made public and posted on HPSCI's website, subject to minimal redactions to protect classified or sensitive information. All documentary evidence relied on in HPSCI's report has been made available to the President and to the Judiciary Committee, and significant portions have been released to the public as well.

Those facts alone render this inquiry more transparent than those against Presidents Nixon and Clinton. As noted previously, during the House's impeachment inquiry into President Nixon, not a single evidentiary hearing took place in public. And although transcripts of closed-door witness hearings were subsequently released, notes or transcripts from private witness interviews were not. In addition, the Judiciary Committee relied on voluminous evidence that was obtained through other investigations, including investigations by prosecutors, a grand jury, and the Senate Select Committee. The Judiciary Committee amassed a collection of files from those investigations and maintained them under strict confidentiality procedures. With respect to President Clinton, the Judiciary Committee's impeachment inquiry was based almost solely upon evidence transmitted by Independent Counsel Starr. That evidence was collected in secret grand jury proceedings or through other law enforcement mechanisms. Even after the evidence was transmitted to the Judiciary Committee, not all of it was disclosed publicly. Furthermore, Committee staff conducted non-public depositions and interviews.

As the Majority counsel for HPSCI explained in his presentation to the Judiciary Committee, conducting witness interviews in a manner that does not allow witnesses to "line up their stories" is a "[b]est investigative practice." Closed-door depositions in the present inquiry were necessary during earlier stages of the investigation to prevent witnesses from reviewing one another's testimony and tailoring their statements accordingly. Indeed, the Judiciary Committee is unaware of any factfinding process—whether in criminal investigations or administrative proceedings—in which all witnesses are interviewed in full view of each other and of the person under investigation. Nevertheless, HPSCI released transcripts of the depositions it conducted on a rolling basis within weeks of their occurrence. In addition, the Judiciary Committee's proceedings were conducted in full public view.

2.The President Was Afforded Meaningful Opportunities to Participate

At the investigative stage before HPSCI and the Committees on Oversight and Reform and Foreign Affairs, President Trump made concerted efforts to ensure that his closest advisors would not be heard from, including by ordering an across-the-board blockade of the House's inquiry and by directing multiple White House and other Executive Branch officials not to appear. Nonetheless, President Trump was offered—but declined—numerous opportunities to participate in the House's proceedings when they reached the Judiciary Committee.

Pursuant to the "Impeachment Inquiry Procedures in the Committee on the Judiciary" described