During the impeachment trial in the Senate Wednesday, President Trump’s deputy counsel Patrick Philbin laid out a series of unanswered questions about the origins of the whistleblower complaint that sparked the Democrats’ impeachment effort, including the role House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) office played and the possible motives of the whistleblower, questions about which the Democrats consistently shut down during the Schiff-led House inquiry.
One key question that has never been answered, said Philbin, is if the whistleblower, who allegedly worked with former Vice President Joe Biden — about whom the impeachment inquiry revolves — was involved in any way to the Obama administration’s handling of the potential conflict of interest with Biden and Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that was paying Biden’s son tens of thousands a month and who Ukraine’s top prosecutor was investigating. It was this same prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, then-Vice President Biden demanded be fired, issuing his own self-admitted quid pro quo by threatening to withhold a billion dollars in aid. After then-Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko removed Shokin, the investigation into alleged corruption involving Burisma was dropped, a point Trump’s impeachment lawyers have stressed in the trial.
In a moment highlighted by PJ Media’s Tyler O’Neil, Philbin’s questions centered around due process issues in the Schiff-led impeachment inquiry stemming from the Democrats’ refusal to allow Republicans to call their own witnesses and the Democrats’ blocking of questions related to the whistleblower, who consulted with Schiff’s staff before submitting the complaint that started the impeachment campaign.
Philbin was called by Chief Justice John Robert to address the defense’s question: “As a fact witness who was coordinating with the whistleblower, did Manager Schiff’s handling of the impeachment inquiry create material due process issues with the President to have a fair trial?”
After arguing that we still do not know “the extent to which there was some consultation” between Schiff’s staff and the whistleblower because all the questions asked by Republicans were “shut down” by the Democrats heading up the inquiry, Philbin underscores that “as a result, any questions into determining who the whistleblower was, and what his motivations and his biases were, were also shut down.” These questions, he maintains, must be answered for there to be true due process in the case.
“If the whistleblower, as is alleged in some public reports, actually did work for then-Vice President Biden on Ukraine issues, exactly what was his role?” asked Philbin (partial transcript via O’Neil). “What was his involvement when issues were raised — we know from testimony that questions were raised — about the potential conflict of interest that the vice president then had when his son was sitting on the board of Burisma. Was the alleged whistleblower involved in any of that and in making decisions to not do anything related to that?”
“Did he have some reason to want to put the deep-six on any question raising any issue about what went on with the Bidens and Burisma and firing Shokin and withholding a billion dollars in loan guarantees and enforcing a very explicit quid pro quo — you won’t get this billion dollars until you fire him? We don’t know,” Philbin continued. “And because Manager Schiff was guiding this whole process, because he was the chairman in charge of directing the inquiry and directing it away from any of those questions, that creates a real due process defect in the record that has been presented here.”
“That is a major problem, a major defect in the way the House proceeding occurred that infects this record and means that it is not a record that could be relied upon to reach any conclusion other than an acquittal for the president,” Philbin concluded.
Video of Philbin’s questions was tweeted out by Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs, who wrote, “We can’t trust the integrity of the Democrats’ impeachment case. Adam Schiff misled Americans about his committee’s interactions [with] the ‘whistleblower.’ He held secret depositions to manufacture a pro-impeachment narrative. And he blocked POTUS’s team for most of the process.”
We can't trust the integrity of the Democrats' impeachment case.
Adam Schiff misled Americans about his committee's interactions w/ the "whistleblower."
He held secret depositions to manufacture a pro-impeachment narrative.
And he blocked POTUS's team for most of the process. pic.twitter.com/Nxyn7yJee1
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) January 30, 2020