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.”
2028, term limits, media tension: Everything Trump covered in wild marathon speech at the White House Press Correspondents’ Association dinner
Trump spares no one at WHCA dinner, taking aim at Dems, press and his own Cabinet
Gretchen Whitmer endorses moderate Haley Stevens in tight upcoming Senate primary
Trump orders signs outside Smithsonian museum amid row over its depiction of American history
California trans suspect arrested in mother’s killing after neighbor recalls heated argument
House Republicans confront NJ governor over 6,600 noncitizens registered to vote in alleged software failure
Illegal immigrant who killed Nashville restaurant owner to face ICE deportation after prison
Jon Bon Jovi Abruptly Ends Madison Square Garden Show: ‘I’m Gonna Have to Cool It’
White House Moves to ‘Restore Trust’ in Smithsonian Institution
Sophie Cunningham’s New Shoes Sell Out in Hours After Her Stand Against Wokeness
White House Correspondents’ Association dinner do-over features enhanced security measures, smaller crowd
Cause of death revealed for Big Sur hiker whose body was found naked on remote California trail
NATO Country Shoots Down Suspected Russia Drone for First Time
Succession: Why Congress has no clear plan when lawmakers can’t serve
Combat vet senator chokes up over fallen friend in fiery floor speech about Iran war: ‘We will finish it’
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.
