Approved to date. I am aware of one senator present who was unable to take the impeachment of last thursday. We please rise and raise his right hand and be sworn . Do you solemnly swear that in all things pertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald John Trump, president of the United States, now pending, you will do impartial justice according to the constitution and law, to help you god . I do. The secretary will note the name of the senator who has just taken the oath and present the oath to him for signature. The sergeantatarms will make the proper proclamation. Hear ye hear ye hear your, all persons are committed to keep silent on pain of imprisonment. The senate of the United States is sitting for the trial of the articles of impeachment exhibited by the house of representatives against Donald John Trump, president of the United States. The majority leader is recognized. I would like to stay for the information of all senators the trial briefs filed yesterday by the parti
You start a counterintelligence investigation and the checks and balances that we need. Mr. We return now to the hearing on the fbi russia inquiry. Underlying problem, the system in the hands of a few bad people can do a lot of damage. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I assume there is no time limit. Take all the time you need. Well, i wont take a long time, but ive been reading these reports, ladies and gentlemen now, for 25 years. And i have great appreciation for this Inspector General. I just want to make those personal remarks. This is a tough arena, and as you can see, there are very tough people that are part of that arena, but to have an Inspector General who tells its as they see it and does this year after year is a saving grace, and i hope people will get this report. If i have a grievance, it is that the print is too small. I agree with that. Thank you very much. And it is heavy to carry around. But last year this Inspector General pledged to congress that he w
If i could say in response to the whole line of questioning. The president of the United States was given the opportunity to call any witnesses that he wanted, any of the 17 witnesses who appeared before the House Intelligence Committee and oversight and in Foreign Affairs and could have been called by the president , and he would have had the opportunity to crossexamine any of them, but of course he did not want to, because all of them told different pieces of the same story which is that the president executed this shakedown of president zelensky to come to get involved in our campaign at the expense of that is not holding water. I cannot say this again. Going back to the calendar and the clock and when i talked to the chairman himself, and asked him lert letters asking for th witness day, and he did not build it in for the calendar to accept one of our witnesses much less the white house, and dont tell me that they would have accepted it, because it was never on the calendar. These
[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] we recessed about to hear from mr. Castor, you are recognized for 45 minutes. Good afternoon chairman and Ranking Member collins, members of the committee and the staff, thank you again for having meto back. And giving me the opportunity to testify about the evidence gathered during the impeachment inquiry. At the outset let me say the evidence does not support the allegations that my democrat colleagues have made. I dont believe the evidence leads to the inclusion they suggest. I am hopeful that some important perspective and context to the facts under discussion today. The chief obligation as a Democrat Impeachment inquiry is trying to assess over the last 76 days is this, whether President Trump abuse the power da his office through quid pro quo, bribery, extortion or whatever by withholding a meeting or Security Assistance as a way of pressuring president zelensky to pressure the
The committee will reconvene. When we recessed we were about to hear from mr. Castor. Mr. Castor, youre recognized for 45 minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for having me back, giving me the opportunity to testify about the evidence gathered during our impeachment inquiry. At the outset let me say the evidence does not support the allegations that my democrat colleagues have made. And i dont believe the evidence leads to the conclusions they suggest. Im hopeful to add some important perspective and context to the facts under discussion today. The chief allegation that the impeachment inquiry has been trying to assess over the last 66 days is this whether President Trump abused the power of his office through quid pro quo, extortion or whatever, by withholding a meeting or Security Assistance as a way of pressuring ukrainian president zelensky to investigate the president s political rival, former vp biden, for the president s political benefit in the upcoming election. The sec