House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) said President Donald Trump engaged in “witness intimidation in real-time” during Friday’s public impeachment hearing — by posting tweets critical of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, which Schiff printed out and read to the diplomat.
Schiff told reporters following the first portion of the hearing that Trump engaged in “witness intimidation in real-time” with his tweets.
“What we saw today is, it wasn’t enough that Ambassador Yovanovitch was smeared. It wasn’t enough that she was attacked. It wasn’t enough that she was recalled for no reason – at least no good reason,” he began.
“But we saw today – witness intimidation in real-time by the President of the United States,” Schiff declared. “Once again going after this dedicated and respected career public servant in an effort to not only chill her but to chill others that may come forward.”
“We take this kind of witness intimidation and obstruction of the inquiry very seriously,” Schiff added, alluding to what he said during the hearing moments before.
Schiff interrupted his own counsel’s questions to Yovanovitch during the hearing, reading their contents aloud and baiting her to describe Trump’s actions as “intimidating”:
SCHIFF: “And now the president in real time is attacking you. What effect do you think that has on other witnesses’ willing to come forward and expose wrongdoing?”
YOVANOVITCH: “It’s very intimidating.”
SCHIFF: “Designed to intimidate, is it not?”
YOVANOVITCH: “I mean I can’t speak to what the president is trying to do, but I think the effect is to be intimidating.”
SCHIFF: “Well I want to let you know ambassador, that some of us here take witness intimidation very, very seriously.”
However, conservatives pointed out that Yovanovitch would not have known about the president’s remarks during the hearing if Schiff had not deliberately highlighted them:
1. I swear the media are not only vicious but they are nuts. But for the fact that Schiff read the presidents tweet to the witness during the course of the hearing, she would have not known about the tweet. How the hell is that witness tampering?
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) November 15, 2019
2. Furthermore, it clearly hasn’t changed the fact that the witness is testifying willingly and sticking to her script.
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) November 15, 2019
GOP Rep Lee Zeldin says on C-Span that Trump's tweets this morning weren't witness intimidation because “Ambassador Yovanovitch wasn't on twitter'' at the time, and the only reason she knows that Trump tweeted about her is because Adam Schiff told her.
— Laura Litvan (@LauraLitvan) November 15, 2019
I talked to Jim Jordan about Trump’s tweet attacking Yovanovitch: pic.twitter.com/ybcEChXa6U
— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) November 15, 2019
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