It took less than two hours in the Senate impeachment trial on Tuesday for a member of President Donald Trump’s defense team to tell an outright lie.<\/p>\n
White House Counsel Pat Cipollone began by complaining about House Democrat’ process for interviewing eyewitness in the impeachment investigation.” The proceedings took place in the basement of the House of Representatives ,” Cipollone said. Then he added,” Not even[ House Intelligence Committee chair Adam] Schiff’s Republican colleagues were allowed into the SCIF “– the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility where the interviews took place.<\/p>\n
There are several issues with that narrative. For one, closed-door interviews are routine for sensitive congressional probes. But more important, abundance of Republican participated in the closed-door gathers; they sat on the three committees contributing the impeachment investigation. The stunt pulled by dozens of Republicans<\/a> who aloud claimed otherwise was a clear attempt to distract from the inquiry’s bombshell testimonies.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Cipollone breath past those truths to parrot Trump’s longstanding contend that the impeachment proceedings have been rigged from the beginning. It was a clear signal that Trump’s solicitors had no intention of rising up to the solemnity of a historic impeachment trial and instead would seek to turn C-Span into Fox News.<\/p>\n Fact check: “Not even Schiff’s Republican colleagues were allowed into the SCIF.”<\/p>\n 1. Closed-door interviews are routine for sensitive congressional probes2. Republicans was attended the meetings<\/p>\n It’s day one of the impeachment experiment and Trump’s crew is already lying. pic.twitter.com\/ KSZA5KJG 5P<\/a><\/p>\n — Mother Jones (@ MotherJones) January 21, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n