Trump allies accuse Dems of running ‘Soviet-style’ impeachment inquiry

Senior Republican members of the US House of Representatives have blasted the Democrats for finally deciding to put President Donald Trump’s impeachment inquiry into vote, after spending weeks holding "Soviet-style" hearings.

Trump’s Republican allies have spent the past five weeks hammering their colleagues across the aisle for conducting the impeachment inquiry in a secretive manner without giving the other side a chance to defend themselves or question witnesses.

The decision by House Democrats on Monday to bring an impeachment resolution to the floor triggered a wave of angry reactions among Republicans, who accused their rivals of running a “Soviet-style” impeachment process.

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise blasted the Democrats for holding the hearings behind closed doors and only allowing members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, House Intelligence Committee, and House Oversight and Reform Committee to attend the sessions.

He said the measure, which will be introduced by House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (on Thursday, won’t bring transparency to the process.

"From what we're hearing, it sounds like all they're trying to do is codify the Soviet-style impeachment process that they've been running where they don't let both sides called witnesses," he said.

He said the impeachment process was more than anything House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff's “personal show to try to build a case of innuendo because they don't have any real facts." 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the resolution “proves everything we were saying was correct.”

Speaking to reporters on Monday, he told reporters that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should have launched the impeachment inquiry with a vote first and answered Republicans’ questions on the rules of the probe.

He insisted that Republicans had been denied fair proceedings.

“Did you ever get to cross-examine? Did you get to have a witness, to bring a witness in?” he said, adding that Schiff should not be leading the investigation.

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He said the latest development "now proves that they [Democrats] were wrong from the start."

Representative Matt Gaetz, a member of the House Judiciary Committee who led a Republican storming of high-security hearing room last week in protest of the closed-door hearings, said the Democrats had to bring the resolution because “they were feeling the heat” following the Republican calls for transparency.

Representative Lee Zeldin said the vote was long overdue. 

"We'll see what the resolution looks like, as I've been saying this entire time with regards to the ability for the minority party to call witnesses, to have an equal allocation of staffing, for all of the transcripts to be released to not just members of Congress but to the American public," he said. 

Zeldin, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the Democrats have banned lawmakers from talking about the substance from witnesses' testimonies yet Schiff breaks those rules by selectively leaking information and talking about the testimonies on television. 

"One of the concerns that I have with the cherry-picked leaks and withholding of key information is that I am abiding by these rules," he said. "I am told that if I don't abide by the rules it's a violation of House rules and an ethics complaint can be filed, and the people who are lecturing me about what the rules are and what the consequences are then go on to a Sunday morning news show and then leak the substance of information."

In a letter to the Democratic caucus on Monday, Pelosi said while she does not believe a vote was necessary to legitimize the impeachment inquiry, it would give the party leverage amid what she said were attempts by the White House to stonewall the inquiry. 

“This resolution establishes the procedure for hearings that are open to the American people, authorizes the disclosure of deposition transcripts, outlines procedures to transfer evidence to the Judiciary Committee as it considers potential articles of impeachment, and sets forth due process rights for the President and his Counsel,” she wrote. 

"We are taking this step to eliminate any doubt as to whether the Trump Administration may withhold documents, prevent witness testimony, disregard duly authorized subpoenas, or continue obstructing the House of Representatives," she added.

The inquiry was launched after a whistleblower in the US intelligence community revealed that Trump had asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to provide dirt on his 2020 presidential rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

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