Page:Impeachment of Donald J. Trump, President of the United States — Report of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives.pdf/356

 straight before presenting their sham to the American people. Transcripts of the interviews trickled out over time, though not all of them have been released, even to this day. Once again, I call upon Chairman Schiff to release the transcript of the deposition of the Intelligence Community Inspector General.

When Pelosi finally allowed a vote on the rules, H.Res.660 gave President Trump and the minority less due process than President Clinton received from the Republicans during his impeachment. The President's counsel was prevented from examining any fact witnesses, Republicans were denied the right to call their own witnesses, and Republicans didn't have subpoena authority of their own. Worse still, Democrats inappropriately used their subpoenas to gather phone records from the President's attorney, from members of Congress, and members of the press, each of which were cherry picked and published. Despite multiple requests for documents throughout the process, Democrats stonewalled until releasing 8,000 pages of records less than 48 hours before the Judiciary Committee's hearing on the report published by the HPSCI. Never has a majority party abused its power in such a shocking and appalling way.

During one of only two impeachment hearings held by the House Judiciary Committee in this impeachment process the committee that has historically been tasked with overseeing impeachment inquiries-neither of which were attended by any fact witnesses, House Republicans, in accordance with the House rules, requested the opportunity to hold a minority hearing. Republicans, after all, deserve the opportunity to call additional witnesses and to seek the truth. House rules require the Chairman to hold the hearing once it's requested, presumably in a timely way. Consistent with their track record of denying minority rights, Chairman Nadler refused to approve the hearing before the Judiciary Committee voted to approve the impeachment articles.

After the two hearings at which there were only presentations, the House Judiciary Committee met for more than 12 hours to debate and amend the articles of impeachment. Throughout the entire day, and as they did throughout the entire impeachment process, Chairman Nadler refused to follow committee rules on points of order, recognizing Members, or parliamentary inquiries. These rules are how committees maintain their decorum and protect the rights of the minority. The majority's disregard of the rules has set a terrible precedent and might lead to justification for future abuses. And, quite frankly, the disregard was completely unnecessary. Democrats have a substantial majority and will win the final vote. Disregarding the rules prevents members from representing the tens of millions of Americans who elected them, all the while knowing that the outcome of the final impeachment vote was a fait accompli.

The penultimate disrespect of the minority occurred late into the evening. After many hours of debate, Chairman Nadler postponed voting on the articles until the following morning and recessed the committee. This was done with no consultation of the Ranking Member, no prior notification to Members on the committee, and no reason given for why the vote could not be held that evening. But it was observed that most of the media had departed.

The following morning, after the media had returned, the anticlimactic vote occurred, lasting all of 10 minutes. 7