Posted on 10/18/2019 4:09:53 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
House Republicans are calling for the committee chairpersons overseeing the impeachment inquiry to release the guidelines and regulations under which depositions and transcriptions of testimony are being conducted.
“We write to demand the release of the rules that are governing the depositions and transcribed interviews being conducted by the joint action of your three committees,” nearly 80 GOP lawmakers said in their Friday letter to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Oversight and Reform Committee acting Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.)
"The secrecy in which these depositions and interviews are being conducted, and the lack of clarity on the rules that govern attendance and access to records, are deeply concerning in the context of such a serious inquiry,” the letter read.”
SNIP
“You have consistently denied non-committee Members their right to attend these depositions and interviews without specifying any authority to do so. House regulations clearly permit all House members to attend depositions,” they continued.
“You have also consistently denied the right of non-committee members to view the transcripts of depositions and interviews without specifying any authority to do so. These transcripts are committee records. Committee records that are the property of the whole House and under House rules, no Member can be denied access to committee records.”
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
oh wow - they wrote a sternly worded letter.
We Cubans should be outraged with the secrecy and the devious way that our government is run...
wait...
Butch Cassidy: [Walks back, and Harvey tenses to begin the fight] No, no, not yet. Not until me and Harvey get the rules straightened out.
Harvey Logan: Rules? In a knife fight? No rules. [Butch throws dirt in Harvey's eyes and kicks him in the groin, who falls to his knees]
Butch Cassidy: Well, if there ain't going to be any rules, let's get the fight started. Someone count. 1,2,3 go.
Sundance Kid: [quickly] 1,2,3, go.
[Butch knocks Harvey out]
Good move
I hope Nasty tells them to pissoff, elections have consequences. That’s what Trump has been telling them. It would lend more credence to what he’s been saying and they haven’t quit making the rules up yet. The Dems are changing the rules because Trump kicks them in the butt every time they turn around.
Schiff to Pelosi and Nadler “I’m laughing too hard to catch my breath. Too funny. Are they serious?”
Maxine: “Demandin’? He be white and he be demandin’? I’ll slap him down.”
Nancy is playing Calvinball
Yeah, that'll fix it. How about they kick the damn' doors down and demand Schiffhead be impeached and removed from the House of Representatives?
Actions require courage, commitment and heavy lifting ... words, not so much. Besides, most in the GOP caucus are tied up with far more serious matters ... like positioning for re-election.
Oh, no, they're only writing letters -- before Trump, they didn't do that. Now there's a paper trail to follow when the tables are turned. And they are going to be turned.
Pelosi don’t need no steenkin’ rules.
“...demand Schiffhead be impeached and removed from the House of Representatives...”
How are they going to impeach Schiff when the damn democrats have control of the House???
It’s a great thought, but will never happen as long as they have control...
That movie was 50 years old last month.
Hell, the fall will probably kill ya.
The rules?
They’re the same rules that the Obama administration used to get the FISA warrants to investigate Trump and his associates.
Democrats make them up as necessary, and only against republicans. Have they ever used any of their made up rules against any democrat?
How can they make a decision with second hand knowledge.
<><> There has been NO VOTE to create that level of subpoena power.
<><> ergo, the House has not created a process to penetrate the constitutionally inherent separation of powers,
<><> nor the legally recognized firewall known as ‘executive privilege’.
<><> a House vote authorizes the committee impeachment investigation,
<><> only then does the committee gains judicial enforcement authority.
<><> thus creating the penalty for non-compliance with an impeachment subpoena.
======================================
A House demand letter only becomes a “subpoena” (technically ‘a request for the production of documents with a penalty for non-compliance’) when the committee has judicial enforcement authority.
Only then does that process establish an enforcement penalty.
The current demand letters cannot carry a penalty because the demands do not contain judicial enforcement authority....simply because the impeachment investigation was not authorized by the chamber.
The reason judicial enforcement authority is constitutionally required is because creating Judicial enforcement authority, creating the penalty for non-compliance, gives the Executive Branch a process to appeal any legislative demand via the Judicial Branch (federal courts).
Absent a penalty for non-compliance, which factually makes a subpoena a ‘subpoena’, the Executive Branch has no process to engage an appellate review by federal courts.
This, then, is the purposeful trick within the Pelosi/Lawfare road-map. (hat tip FReeper Brach)
Why only 80?
That gives you pretty good indication how numerous Bush League Republicans really are.
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