House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff said Monday that attempts by Republicans in the Senate to call former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, to testify in President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial would be little more than a political stunt.
In an interview on ABC’s “The View,” Schiff (D-Calif.) said that calling the Bidens to testify “would convert the Senate trial into the same kind of a sham proceeding.”
“Do you worry that if you open the door to witnesses like John Bolton that Republicans —we’re talking about a fair trial — Republicans are going to call the Bidens, even you to testify?” co-host Abby Huntsman asked.
“Trump re-upped his calls for you and Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the weekend. He was tweeting all about that. Joe Biden has said that he would not testify, then he said he would testify. Would you, if asked, be willing to testify if you were subpoenaed?” she said.
“Look, I’m not a fact witness, so other than nullifying the president, I’m not sure why the Senate would call me or Nancy Pelosi as a witness,” Schiff answered.
Huntsman pressed, noting that if it were to be “a fair trial” it would make sense for the Bidens to be called since Democrats tied President Trump’s impeachment to his alleged misdeeds involving Ukraine, where Joe and Hunter Biden have ties.
“I think what the senators would have to evaluate is, do the Bidens have any relevant testimony? I think the answer is that they don’t,” Schiff said.
“What is at issue here is whether the president withheld military aid [from Ukraine], withheld official acts like a White House meeting in order to coerce a country to announce investigations, not even conduct them but just announce them to help smear his opponent,” Schiff continued.
“There’s not much light that Joe Biden or Hunter Biden could shed on the president’s conduct,” he said, adding: “There’s been no factual basis for these allegations against Joe Biden … no factual basis that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 election.”
POLITICO reported in January 2017 that Ukrainian officials collided with the 2016 campaign of Hillary Clinton to undermine then-GOP nominee Donald Trump’s effort.
“Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election,” the site reportd.
“And they helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found,” it added.