House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) sent a note to members of his committee on Tuesday establishing the procedures in this week’s public hearings in the House impeachment probe.
“These procedures are consistent with those governing prior impeachment proceedings and mirror those used under Republican and Democratic House leadership for decades,” Schiff wrote.
According to the memo, he and ranking member Devin Nunes (R-CA) will be allowed to deliver opening statements at the beginning of the hearings, as will the witnesses.
Then Schiff and Nunes will hold up to 90 minutes of extended questioning of the witness, during which only the two committee leaders and the committee counsels for Democrats and Republicans may ask questions.
After the extended rounds of questioning, committee members will each have five minutes to speak to the witness.
Besides laying out hearing procedures, the Democratic lawmaker also set the parameters of the investigation to President Donald Trump’s efforts to use his office to get foreign governments to manufacture dirt on his political opponents.
Schiff reiterated that the investigation “will not serve as venues for any Member to further the same sham investigations into the Bidens or into debunked conspiracies about 2016 U.S. election interference,” as he accused Nunes of attempting to do over the weekend.
Open hearings begin this week with acting Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent on Wednesday. Former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch will publicly testify on Friday.
Read Schiff’s memo below:
