House Judiciary Committee Member Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) criticized Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) for getting him removed from an impeachment inquiry hearing on Monday.
“This is proof that Democrats cant win a fair election, they cant win a fair debate and they absolutely cannot run a fair impeachment inquiry because theyre stacking the deck,” Gaetz claimed to Fox News later that evening.
He said that so far, the process has been “bizarre,” adding that his committee chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) commenced the inquiry in early September.
He said that Schiff and other Democrats are trying to limit Republican Congressional access to evidence and witnesses in the inquiry.
“If Republicans had a witness list it would be Adam Schiff who would be a fact witness because of the collusion that he and his staff were engaged in with the whistleblower that they then lied about,” he claimed. “Even Republicans didnt treat Bill Clinton this bad.”
He mentioned that in 1998s impeachment proceedings of former President Clinton, Democrats were allowed to issue subpoenas. Clinton counsel were allowed more access than the attorneys of President Trump now, he claimed.
According to the Congressional Research Service (pdf), the Houses formal impeachment proceedings are usually referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
“The House impeachment process generally proceeds in three phases: (1) initiation of the impeachment process; (2) Judiciary Committee investigation, hearings, and markup of articles of impeachment; and (3) full House consideration of the articles of impeachment,” it says.
