NADLER’S TURN IN IMPEACH RING
Put up or shut up, House chair tells Don
John Bolton on Tuesday put what was likely the final nail in his impeachment testimony coffin.
An attorney for the ex-national security adviser said a high-stakes court decision another former White House official won’t compel him to testify in the House impeachment probe, dashing just about all hope that Bolton (inset) will soon share with Congress what he knows about President Trump’s Ukraine scandal.
The attorney, Chuck Cooper,, claimed Monday’s ruling that former White House counsel Don McGahn must comply with a subpoena to testify before the House Judiciary Committee doesn’t apply to Bolton because of the national security focus of his former job.
“In McGahn, the House Judiciary Committee emphasized to the district court that the information it sought from Mr. McGahn ‘did not involve the sensitive topics of national security or foreign affairs,’ ” Cooper said in a statement. “Therefore, any passing references in the McGahn decision to presidential communications concerning national security matters are not authoritative.”
Rather, Cooper signaled Bolton will wait for a judge to decide a separate court case involving Charles Kupperman, a former top National Security Council official who followed Trump’s orders to stonewall an impeachment inquiry subpoena and then asked a federal judge to decide whether he should listen to Congress or the president.
The Kupperman case will likely take months to be resolved.
Meanwhile, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff — confident in the evidence already collected — said Tuesday that his panel is handing over its findings to the House Judiciary Committee as early as next week for consideration and drafting of articles of impeachment.
Cooper represents Kupperman as well and said his case will produce a more “authoritative and binding judicial ruling” on testimony relating to national security matters.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler is officially picking up the impeachment baton — and telling President Trump to put up or shut up.
The New York congressman, who leads the House Judiciary Committee, announced Tuesday that his powerful panel will host its first impeachment hearing next week — and Trump is welcome to attend.
“The president has a choice to make: He can take this opportunity to be represented in the impeachment hearings, or he can stop complaining,” Nadler said in a statement after sending a letter to Trump informing him the hearing will take place on Dec. 4 and that he can either participate in person or dispatch his lawyers.
“I hope that he chooses to participate in the inquiry, directly or through counsel, as other presidents have done before him,” Nadler added.
“The committee intends this hearing to serve as an opportunity to discuss the historical and constitutional basis of impeachment, as well as the framers’ intent and understanding of terms like ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,’ ” Nadler wrote, adding that a panel of constitutional scholars will be present to provide historical context.
The Manhattan Democrat gave Trump’s team until Sunday night to let him know what the president’s plans are.
Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s impeachment lawyers, referred questions to the White House, which did not return a request for comment.
It’s highly unlikely that Trump would attend in person, as he’s slated to participate in a summit with NATO allies in England on Dec. 4. The hearing will mark the first time since the impeachment inquiry began that Trump can have his lawyers present.
Trump has complained for weeks that the impeachment process lacks transparency, even though nine back-toback public hearings were held last week.
On Tuesday, Trump offered a novel reason for why he has blocked several key administration officials from testifying in the inquiry.
“I am fighting for future presidents and the office of the president,” Trump tweeted. “I would love to have Mike Pompeo, Rick Perry, Mick Mulvaney and many others testify about the phony Impeachment Hoax…but future presidents should in no way be compromised.”
Nadler’s letter comes on the heels of House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff’s Monday announcement that his panel is working on its final investigative report, which will serve as the basis for the judiciary panel as it considers and potentially drafts articles of impeachment against Trump.
Schiff said he expects to release the impeachment report “soon after Congress returns from the Thanksgiving recess.”
The report is expected to summarize the evidence gathered by Schiff’s investigators over the course of several weeks of closed-door and public testimony about Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky into launching investigations of Joe Biden’s family and supposed Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.
Also Tuesday, Schiff released transcripts of the closed-door depositions of Mark Sandy, a career official in the White House budget office, and Philip Reeker, a State Department official in the European bureau.
Sandy, who bucked orders from Trump to stonewall the probe, testified in his Nov. 16 appearance that Trump on July 12 personally directed a freeze on the $391 million in U.S. military aid that previous impeachment witnesses have said was used as leverage in the bid to press Ukraine to launch the investigations.
Sandy said he repeatedly inquired about why the aid was put on hold, but didn’t receive an answer until September, when he was told the cash was frozen amid concerns about other European countries not giving Ukraine enough assistance.
Schiff said that belated justification reeked of a coverup.