House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., speaks before Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Apparently, Adam Schiff is now acting as the personal lawyer for some of the “witnesses” being trotted out to tell us what we already know about the transcript.

The Federalist is reporting that Schiff was telling Alexander Vindman not to answer certain questions from Republicans. The implication is obviously that those questions could possibly undermine the case for impeachment.

This isn’t anonymously sourced either. It’s straight from Rep. Steve Scalise’s mouth.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who is overseeing the ongoing illegitimate impeachment inquiry set in motion by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is reportedly telling witnesses testifying not to answer questions asked by Republican lawmakers.

Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., slammed the hidden process claiming Schiff was instructing witnesses testifying behind the closed doors of the SCIF not to answer questions asked by Republican members.

“He’s directing witnesses not to answer questions that he doesn’t want the witness to answer if they’re asked by Republicans,” Scalise charged. “He’s not cut off one Democrat. He’s not interrupted one Democrat and told a witness not to answer Democrat members’ questions but today he started telling witnesses not to answer questions by certain Republicans.”

Here’s the video per The Daily Caller.

House Minority Whip @SteveScalise rips into Democratic "soviet style" impeachment process:

He says that @RepAdamSchiff "started telling witnesses not to answer questions by certain Republicans." pic.twitter.com/5mcEU8NZuq

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 29, 2019

This is a serious breach of the process by Schiff. The entire point of these hearings is to allow both sides to ask questions and get answers. By telling a witness, Vindman in this case, not to answer certain inquiries, Schiff is essentially molding the narrative he wants and disallowing any possible information that could counter it.

There’s dirty pool and then there’s whatever this is.

If I had to speculate, I’d guess this has to do with Vindman’s claims of trying to “correct” the Ukraine transcript (my colleague Elizabeth Vaughn will have that full story shortly). Republicans likely wanted to press him on that and find out if he had any corroboration at all for the claim.

As I wrote last night, this entire process is a sham and the new resolution they are seeking to pass only further codifies it as such. Adam Schiff will continue to own all the power and the minority party will still enjoy zero rights. And we can see that Schiff is more than willing to use that power to skew and manipulate the process to his advantage. It’s a disgusting use of Congress’ mandate and deserves to be called out.

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