The White House and the White House Counsel will not participate in the sham impeachment hearings before the House Judiciary Committee.

On today’s Jay Sekulow Live, we discussed the letter that White House Counsel Pat Cipollone sent to House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler stating that they would not be participating in that hearing.

From the letter:

I write in response to your letter of November 26, 2019, to President Trump regarding the purported "impeachment inquiry" currently being conducted by Democrats in the House of Representatives ("House"). As you know, this baseless and highly partisan inquiry violates all past historical precedent, basic due process rights, and fundamental fairness. Your letter asked that the President notify the House Committee on the Judiciary ("Judiciary Committee" or "Committee") by December 1, 2019, whether the Administration intends to participate in a hearing scheduled for December 4, 2019. You scheduled this initial hearing—no doubt purposely—during the time that you know the President will be out of the country attending the NATO Leaders Meeting in London.

Your letter provides little information about the upcoming hearing. It vaguely indicates that you intend to hold a hearing to discuss the "historical and constitutional basis of impeachment." We understand from rumors and press reports (though not from any notice provided in your letter or in the official notice of the hearing) that the hearing will consist of an academic discussion by law professors. We understand this to mean that your initial hearing will include no fact witnesses at all.

ACLJ Director of Government Affairs Thann Bennett’s take on the upcoming hearings:

That dynamic between Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Nadler is going to be one of the interesting subplots because jurisdiction over this was already stripped away from him once, we’ll see how he handles it the second time around.

We also discussed Adam Schiff’s forthcoming report from the House Intelligence Committee that will be sent to the Judiciary Committee.

Congressman Ben Cline (VA-6), who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, offered his thoughts on Adam Schiff’s report on Fox News:

You know, I had a great Thanksgiving, I hope you did too. I ate a lot of turkey, I didn’t expect there to be a half-baked bird sitting on my desk when I get back, but the Schiff report is going to be just that. It’s a half-baked report, born of hidden hearings and public testimony that amounted to a bunch of hearsay, and...we’ll do our jobs in Judiciary, just like with did with the Mueller report, and you saw how that ended up.

We’ll keep you updated with our analysis as things continue to unfold.

You can listen to the entire episode here.