U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL-05) introduced a bill Wednesday demanding that impeachment-related work be “done in an open setting and in public view.”
The bill has several Republican cosponsors and would require the Democrats to make all “hearings, witness interviews and communications, document productions and examinations, proceedings and other related work” available to the public.
Brooks suggested in a press release that an impeachment inquiry that is “secretive” and excludes certain congressmen is “illegitimate at best and a political charade and sham at worst.”
The bill was introduced after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL-01) was kicked out of an impeachment inquiry hearing because he doesn’t sit on any of the committees conducting the investigation.
“House Democrats are conducting a hyper-partisan impeachment effort in the Capitol basement that even members of Congress are barred from attending. As such, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s so-called ‘Impeachment Inquiry’ is a sham process that both violates House rules and violates even the most fundamental rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution,” Brooks said.
He went on to say Democrats are “excluding the American people from the entire process.”
“The American people deserve the right to witness this impeachment process and hear unfiltered witness testimony, but Democrats instead adamantly seek to deny the American people the ability to judge the merits of impeachment efforts based solely on firsthand information, not gossip and hearsay,” he continued. “The veil of secrecy must be lifted and the selective leaking of deceptive testimony without context must end.”
He concluded by calling his House resolution a “simple” bill that would require impeachment work to be “done in an open setting in public view.”
“For the life of me, I don’t understand how Democrats can possibly be opposed to open government and a more informed citizenry that gets real evidence firsthand rather than the illegally leaked gossip so readily parroted and aired by a complicit and partisan Fake News Media,” he said.
– – –
Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News, The Ohio Star, and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
