Representatives Hern and Mullin denied access to non-classified impeachment inquiry materials, demand transparency
WASHINGTON, DC – This morning, Representatives Kevin Hern (OK-01) and Markwayne Mullin (OK-02) requested access to the non-classified transcript of Ambassador Volker’s testimony with the Intelligence Committee but were turned away by Committee staff.
Reps. Hern and Mullin react after rejection from Intelligence Committee
Later in the morning, Reps. Hern and Mullin again attempted access to the SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) with over 40 Members of Congress and were able to gain access to the Intelligence Committee hearing, briefly, before Chairman Adam Schiff ended the hearing.
“Many of my constituents didn’t believe me when I told them that Members of Congress were being barred from access to impeachment materials,” said Rep. Hern. “Oklahomans are being completely shut out of this process – not one of the five representatives in our delegation are on any of the committees participating in the impeachment inquiry. Since this inquiry is happening behind closed doors, there are no Oklahomans with access to important documents, testimonies, and hearings. Instead, three of Congress’s most radical, anti-Trump socialists are there: Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. To watch this process move forward like this is baffling. I urge all Americans to keep fighting, call Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Schiff every day and demand transparency in the process. You deserve to know what’s going on deep in the heart of our Capitol.”
“The most frustrating thing is that we’re talking about impeaching the President of the United States and it’s not transparent,” Mullin said. “Chairman Schiff and the Democrats won’t let other Members of Congress into the hearings or open them up to the public. Instead they are leaking one-sided statements that don’t give us the full picture of what’s happening in the hearings. The past two impeachments, Nixon and Clinton, were open and transparent for the American people to see, but this is nothing more than a political witch hunt.”
Hern and Mullin should be censured. The “secret committee” that they broke in to was a committee that included Democrats and Republicans. It was closed and not to be recorded so that witness testimony could be preserved without allowing other witnesses to listen and coordinate/change their testimony. Breaking into a closed hearing as part of a group that carried in electronic devices capable of recording is not “patriotic”. It is evidence that they are ignorant of the rule of law.
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