Rep. Quigley on Trump impeachment hearing: Will be ‘compelling, very credible and obviously consistent testimony’

Illinois Democratic Reps. Mike Quigley and Raja Krishnamoothi have been prepping for the hearings. Said Krishnamoorthi, “It’s like cramming for final exams.”

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House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., followed by Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., walks out to talk to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019, about the House impeachment inquiry. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) The two are leaving the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, nicknamed the “SCIF.”

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WASHINGTON — In televised sessions, the House Intelligence panel kicks off Wednesday the first of at least two weeks of historic impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump, with making a persuasive case the challenge facing committee members including Illinois Democrats Mike Quigley and Raja Krishnamoorthi.

I asked Quigley when we talked Tuesday to boil down the charge against Trump. Being able to clearly and simply tell the story of what Trump did wrong — and why it rises to the level of impeachable offenses — is crucial for Democrats.

Quigley said the case is, “That the president extorted a vulnerable ally for political gain, contrary to longstanding U.S. policy.”

Said Krishnamoorthi, at the hearings, “We’re not going to engage in, you know, discredited conspiracy theory investigations. And we’re not going to out the whistleblower. We’re going to focus on the subject matter of the inquiry, which is this alleged scheme to pressure the Ukrainians to basically investigate Donald Trump’s political rivals for his political benefit.”

Quigley and Krishnamoorthi are among the 22 members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. It is chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. There are 13 Democrats and nine Republicans on the panel.

On Wednesday, Ambassador William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, the State Department’s lead officer dealing with Ukraine, will testify. On Friday, the panel will hear from Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who was ambassador to Ukraine until Trump yanked her.

Sources said there will be a second round of hearings next week.

What Taylor, Kent and Yovanovitch — all career State Department officers — say should not be a surprise, since the three were in closed depositions with the committee and transcripts of these sessions have been made public.

And contrary to the narrative pushed by Trump and GOP allies, the Republican members and their staffers had the ability to be in and participate in those depositions — and they did, according to the transcripts.

Republicans describe the location where the depositions took place as a “basement bunker,” in order to make it seem the Democrats were trying to hide in a secret place. In fact the meeting location was a well-known Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, nicknamed “SCIF,” in the lower levels of the Capitol.

Beyond the bureaucratic name, a SCIF is merely a secure location where classified information can be discussed without worry about electronic bugs.

Quigley was at the depositions for the trio of career State Department officers.

Quigley picked up on some intangible insights from actually being in the room for the deposition sessions.

“I think you’re going to see clear, compelling, very credible and obviously consistent testimony,” Quigley said.

“ … I think when a witness looks at a jury, there’s something about body language, nonverbal communication that makes someone trust them, like them, believe them. They’re very believable, very compelling. Taylor explains the scheme as well as anyone and why it matters.”

People have a lot to do, and as historic as this impeachment hearing is — the last one was President Bill Clinton’s in 1998 — getting public support for impeachment, beyond those whose minds are already made up, is going to be hard.

Democrats are focusing on three questions:

•Did Trump ask the Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up dirt on his potential 2020 rival, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter, who was on the board of a Ukraine energy company?

•What were related actors up to? More is at issue than that July phone call Trump had with Zelensky. The Democrats are looking at other players, including Rudy Giuliani.

•Did Trump and members of his administration obstruct, suppress or cover up information?

To that point Quigley said, “If there was nothing wrong, why did the president tell people not to testify?”

Quigley and Krishnamoothi have been prepping for the hearings. Said Krishnamoorthi, “It’s like cramming for final exams.”

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