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An Impeachment primer
Posted on: November 12, 2019 at 15:11:26 CT
Ace UNC
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The process of questioning witnesses will also be centralized. Schiff and his GOP counterpart, Rep. Devin Nunes, will control the majority of the questioning and likely defer to staff lawyers for much of it. House rules typically restrict the ability of staff to participate in public hearings, but Democrats have made an exception on impeachment and they intend to lean heavily on professional lawyers to drive the narrative.
Schiff and Nunes also will each have the power to ask an unlimited number of questions to witnesses, for up to 45 minutes at a time. During these periods, only they and their staff may participate. The rank-and-file lawmakers on the committee will also be given five minutes apiece to ask witnesses questions.
Here’s a look at the six figures who will play the most critical roles in the impeachment hearings.
Daniel Goldman
Schiff is expected to yield much of his time to Goldman, a former federal prosecutor who serves as the Intelligence Committee’s director of investigations. Goldman spent 10 years as a federal prosecutor with the Southern District of New York.
Goldman was featured prominently in the deposition transcripts, and he’ll likely play a similarly outsize role during the public hearings.
Daniel Noble
Like Goldman, Noble also worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. He specialized in cybercrime and organized crime prosecutions.
Noble was brought on to the Intelligence Committee in March as a senior counsel and has been intimately involved in the private questioning of witnesses throughout the impeachment inquiry. In addition to Goldman, Schiff is likely to tap Noble for public questioning, too.
Steve Castor
In moving Rep. Jim Jordan to the Intelligence Committee, Republicans also brought over his chief counsel for the Oversight Committee, Steve Castor. Sources familiar with GOP planning say Nunes will yield much of his time during the 45-minute round of questioning to Castor, who has endeared himself to GOP lawmakers for sharply grilling witnesses during the depositions.
Adam Schiff
If you didn’t already know it from the president’s tweets, Schiff is the public face of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry — and it’s a role he clearly relishes. A former federal prosecutor, Schiff is Public Enemy No. 1 for Trump and his GOP allies, who have accused him of everything from lying to treason.
Schiff is a close ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, making it nearly certain that the hearings will go exactly the way Pelosi wants them to.
In many ways, Schiff was made for this moment. Democrats trust him, and they believe he’s their most effective messenger for a process with so many built-in political landmines — one that many of them, including Pelosi, were once extremely reluctant to embrace.
Devin Nunes
Nunes has emerged in recent years as Trump’s most hardline defender in Congress, one of the few lawmakers who, when Republicans previously controlled the House, was willing to use his gavel to undermine the investigations of the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia. He’s been a Fox News fixture, insisting that Trump is the victim of coup attempts and conspiracies. As a result, he’s become a polarizing figure in the House.
Though Nunes is likely to delegate most of his questioning time to committee lawyers, his presence at the center of the dais will be a comfort to Trump, even if he’s not asking many questions.
Jim Jordan
Jordan is a fierce questioner and fire-breathing defender of Trump — but until last week, he wasn’t even on the Intelligence Committee. But his consistently aggressive defense of the president pushed House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy to install Jordan on the panel (and remove a less prominent Republican member) and give him a chance to put his tenacity on display.
Still, Jordan’s role may also be less than meets the eye. Since Schiff and Nunes will control the vast majority of the questioning time (and will likely delegate it to staff), Jordan himself may be relegated to a five-minute cameo like most of the other committee members, unless other colleagues on the panel decide to yield their time to him.
Schiff and Nunes also will each have the power to ask an unlimited number of questions to witnesses, for up to 45 minutes at a time. During these periods, only they and their staff may participate. The rank-and-file lawmakers on the committee will also be given five minutes apiece to ask witnesses questions.
Here’s a look at the six figures who will play the most critical roles in the impeachment hearings.
Daniel Goldman
Schiff is expected to yield much of his time to Goldman, a former federal prosecutor who serves as the Intelligence Committee’s director of investigations. Goldman spent 10 years as a federal prosecutor with the Southern District of New York.
Goldman was featured prominently in the deposition transcripts, and he’ll likely play a similarly outsize role during the public hearings.
Daniel Noble
Like Goldman, Noble also worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. He specialized in cybercrime and organized crime prosecutions.
Noble was brought on to the Intelligence Committee in March as a senior counsel and has been intimately involved in the private questioning of witnesses throughout the impeachment inquiry. In addition to Goldman, Schiff is likely to tap Noble for public questioning, too.
Steve Castor
In moving Rep. Jim Jordan to the Intelligence Committee, Republicans also brought over his chief counsel for the Oversight Committee, Steve Castor. Sources familiar with GOP planning say Nunes will yield much of his time during the 45-minute round of questioning to Castor, who has endeared himself to GOP lawmakers for sharply grilling witnesses during the depositions.
Adam Schiff
If you didn’t already know it from the president’s tweets, Schiff is the public face of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry — and it’s a role he clearly relishes. A former federal prosecutor, Schiff is Public Enemy No. 1 for Trump and his GOP allies, who have accused him of everything from lying to treason.
Schiff is a close ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, making it nearly certain that the hearings will go exactly the way Pelosi wants them to.
In many ways, Schiff was made for this moment. Democrats trust him, and they believe he’s their most effective messenger for a process with so many built-in political landmines — one that many of them, including Pelosi, were once extremely reluctant to embrace.
Devin Nunes
Nunes has emerged in recent years as Trump’s most hardline defender in Congress, one of the few lawmakers who, when Republicans previously controlled the House, was willing to use his gavel to undermine the investigations of the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia. He’s been a Fox News fixture, insisting that Trump is the victim of coup attempts and conspiracies. As a result, he’s become a polarizing figure in the House.
Though Nunes is likely to delegate most of his questioning time to committee lawyers, his presence at the center of the dais will be a comfort to Trump, even if he’s not asking many questions.
Jim Jordan
Jordan is a fierce questioner and fire-breathing defender of Trump — but until last week, he wasn’t even on the Intelligence Committee. But his consistently aggressive defense of the president pushed House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy to install Jordan on the panel (and remove a less prominent Republican member) and give him a chance to put his tenacity on display.
Still, Jordan’s role may also be less than meets the eye. Since Schiff and Nunes will control the vast majority of the questioning time (and will likely delegate it to staff), Jordan himself may be relegated to a five-minute cameo like most of the other committee members, unless other colleagues on the panel decide to yield their time to him.
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An Impeachment primer - Ace AU - 11/12 15:11:26
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