Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) blasted House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) on Sunday. Schiff held closed door meetings for the testimony of ICIG Atkinson and Envoy Volker last week. Then Schiff would not allow transcripts of their testimony to be made public. Why?
It has been reported from other sources, notably Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge, that ICIG Michael Atkinson testified that the so called ‘whistle-blower’ did not inform Atkinson that the whistleblower gossipmonger and his legal team had previously contacted staff working for Adam Schiff before he submitted his complaint.
When questioned on this earlier in the week, Schiff had denied that such contact took place. The Washington Post gave this claim a 4-Pinocchio’s rating. Later he reversed himself claiming that he “had misunderstood” the reporter’s question.
So, again, why are the transcripts being withheld? Ratcliffe said that he would love to tell you about both interviews (Volker and Atkinson). The problem? Schiff won’t allow it. Why? Ratcliffe noted,
“He made that decision because those transcripts aren’t good for the Democrats and for the narrative. What I can tell you is that, I promise you that, the Inspector General’s testimony on Friday will shock you with respect to his investigation into the contacts between Adam Schiff and his staff and the Intelligence Committee and the whistleblower. When you see the transcript and you see what investigation was performed, any fair person is going to agree with me that Adam Schiff is a material witness and his staff are material witnesses and the only way we can get good answers is to put them under oath about the type of contact and the extent of which they had with the whistleblower. The bottom line is Adam Schiff is a material witness and shouldn’t be running the investigation.”
Ratcliffe went on to stake his own credibility on what he is saying and to call the whole process a “kangaroo court.”
So what is really going on here?
The Democrats need to parade a narrative to the public that “Orange man is bad.” The current story supporting this is this constructed narrative about a conversation with the President of the Ukraine. Part of the construct is to convince the public that the White House is covering up malfeasance. In doing so they hope to increase support for their various nefarious activities including impeachment. Eventually, if they can get enough public support, they would charge that “obstruction of justice” was taking place just as they did during the Mueller investigation. There has been a small increase in support for impeachment according to the polls.
The Constitution provides the Judiciary Committee with jurisdiction over any and all impeachment proceedings. Therefore, “subpoenas” being issued by other committees as “impeachment subpoenas” are nothing more than demand letters. This is notwithstanding Pelosi announcement of a “formal impeachment inquiry.” This was a flagrantly abusive attempt to grant other committees with the powers invested in the Judiciary Committee.
Why take this route? Subpoenas are a legal process. As such, they can be challenged in court. Pelosi and the Dems have already lost in court over subpoenas issued by Nadler’s Judiciary Committee. They do not want to have witnesses compelled to testify in court over their secret activities to overthrow the government of the United States. And it would appear that Pelosi has lost whatever little confidence she had in Jerry Nadler being able to handle the task of impeachment within the Judiciary Committee.
As Sundance at CTH noted,
The judiciary would likely upend her House committee “official impeachment inquiry” scheme, just as D.C. District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell recently did to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler for “gaming the system“. Speaker Pelosi’s unilateral decree for an “official impeachment inquiry” without a House vote will not pass court review.
And a scheme is just what this is. What the Democrats need to do is to create a mirage. They have the need to create the optics of something that doesn’t exist and make it appear that PDJT is guilty of this thing that does not exist. The Democrats are hoping that the American electorate will not see through to the underlying conspiracy.
In order to gain access to information that they would then twist to suit their narrative, the lawyers within the conspiracy on the committees’ staffs constructed a penalty mechanism that benefits the impeachment agenda but avoids the court system. As such we see language like thisin their “subpoenas.”
This is a thinly veiled attempt to threaten obstruction of justice legal penalties against people who resist these letters. They are attempting to bully people into turning over documents. The MSM support the Democrats in this by calling them subpoenas even though they know this is not true. Let’s call this what it really is, Witch Hunt 2.0.
Kevin Sherlock notes,
President Trump has ordered his administration not to co-operate with the blizzard of subpoenas House Democrat corruptocrats have issued. He is on perfectly solid ground.
Why?
Because the House members have not voted for an impeachment inquiry, let alone articles of impeachment. That makes their subpoenas useful for Third World toilet paper, but not much else.
It is time for Americans to tell the Democratic Party that America comes first, not their need for power over everyone. Liberty would be best served if the Democratic Party would just shrivel up and blow away in the wind.
