House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff accused Vice President Mike Pence of refusing to declassify information “directly relevant” to the impeachment inquiry in order to conceal his role in the quid pro quo scheme for which President Trump is being impeached.
Pence’s Russia adviser Jennifer Williams testified last month about the vice president’s September 18 phone call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Schiff requested ten days later that Pence declassify her testimony, contained in a November 26 letter from her lawyer, but Pence last week declined to do so in a letter to Schiff.
The testimony “raises profound questions about your knowledge of the President’s scheme to solicit Ukraine’s interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election,” Schiff wrote in a Tuesday letter to Pence, adding that Pence’s letter refusing to classify Williams’s testimony is “deeply troubling.”
“Without prompting, the letter volunteers that ‘the Vice President never raised the Bidens, Burisma, or Crowdstrike in his conversations with President Zelensky,’” Schiff wrote, referring to Pence’s letter. “The Committee neither asserted that, nor asked whether, you specifically used those words.”
Don Lemon Teases His Presidential Run Depends on God, Who He Insists is Female: ‘If She Gives Me a Sign’
Feds charge illegal immigrant in Loyola student killing as attorney says prosecutors lack ‘faith’ in state
Breaking: Labor Report Blows Economists Away – 3 Times as Many New Jobs Added as Projected
WATCH: House Democrat gets unexpected response when he asks constituents about voter ID requirements
DHS preps deportation of alleged MS-13 gang member wanted for pastor’s murder in El Salvador
What B-52 bombers bring to the Iran fight and more top headlines
Trump’s $1 billion presidential library expected to dwarf all predecessors
‘Local independent’ outlet in Virginia pushing redistricting is owned by Democratic operatives
VP Vance to meet with Viktor Orbán in Hungary days ahead of foreign nation’s elections
Celebrity chef lashes out at Trump for changing the ‘rules’ the same year as America 250
Colorado House advances conversion therapy lawsuit bill; GOP lawmaker calls it ‘slap in the face’ to SCOTUS
Artemis II crew describes life aboard Orion spacecraft on historic journey to the moon and back
Erika Kirk and Karoline Leavitt talk free thinking and faith at TPUSA college tour kickoff
Karoline Leavitt reveals ‘anti-climatic’ way Trump told her she’d be press secretary: ‘Oh, by the way’
Trump slaps up to 100% tariff on some brand-name drug imports in major America First push
Williams’s testimony directly conflicts with Pence’s statements, Schiff said, raising concerns that Pence could have been “purposefully misleading” the Intelligence Committee about his conversation with Zelensky.
“Your unwillingness to declassify the Supplemental Submission raises the serious question of whether your continuing efforts to obstruct the House’s impeachment inquiry are intended not just to protect President Trump, but yourself as well,” Schiff stated in his letter.
Pence’s office has declined to comment.
The House is set to hold a full House vote to impeach President Trump on two articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The nearly three-month impeachment inquiry investigated whether Trump engaged in a quid pro quo with Ukraine by temporarily delaying U.S. military aid to the NATO ally while pressuring the country to announce an investigation into his political rival, former vice president Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
Story cited here.
