House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that closed-door impeachment hearings will keep happening for an undetermined amount of time, even after the House voted to allow open hearings in the inquiry against President Donald Trump.
The hearings behind closed doors, which have reportedly included House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) blocking Republicans from asking witnesses certain questions, will continue as long as they are “productive,” Pelosi told Bloomberg.
She said open hearings could start in November and, when asked, said she couldnt rule out the investigation continuing into 2020 despite it being an election year.
“I dont know what the timetable will be—the truth will set us free,” she said. “We have not made any decisions on if the president will be impeached.”
Pelosi also suggested the probe could include actions Trump took that have nothing to do with Ukraine.
“There is—I should say—a mountain of concerns to be brought up,” she said, while also acknowledging the publics attention span is limited. “When does the law of diminished returns set in?”
Trumps phone call in July with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky triggered an anonymous person to file a complaint against the president, which eventually led to Pelosi announcing an impeachment inquiry against him.
The White House released a transcript of the phone call shortly after that and Schiff released the complaint a day later.
It was later discovered that the whistleblower had contact with House Democrats before filing the complaint. The Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, Michael Atkinson, said that the person seemed to have political bias in favor of “a rival candidate,” with reports indicating its one of the Democrats seeking to unseat Trump.
House Democrats voted on Thursday to advance the impeachment inquiry. The bipartisan vote against advancing the inquiry included two DemocRead More – Source
