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.”
Massachusetts city imposes curfew ahead of historic World Cup match
Fitness influencer pleads guilty in violent gym attack after beating man with weightlifting belt
One Day After Cancelling July 4 Fireworks, Buffalo, NY, Celebrates Somali Independence Day
‘Young Washington’ Delivers Revolutionary Hit for Angel Studios Honoring America’s 250th Birthday
Ex-Obama advisor mocked after questioning Chicago’s response to unconscious man: ‘Own a mirror?’
Secret Service missed ‘multiple opportunities’ to prevent Trump assassination attempt: watchdog
Watch: Young Americans Turn National Mall Into Wild Celebration of Patriotism as US Scores Big World Cup Win
Before 1776: Rediscovering America’s first chapter at Jamestown
Watch: Pete Hegseth Skewers ‘Blinded by Ideology’ Protesters Who Interrupted Moment of Silence for Fallen Soldier
Sanctuary county refused 615 ICE transfer requests, turned over just 11 illegal immigrants, records show
Secret Service debuts new badge for all personnel: ‘Represents unity’
Thunderbirds to race cars: Inside Horsepower of America at the Great American State Fair
Video shows moments before Army veteran was fatally shot in Walmart parking lot dispute
WWII pilot missing after secret spy mission finally accounted for more than 80 years later
Letitia James hammered after NY Medicaid fraud unit funding frozen over ineffective enforcement
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.
