House Republicans intend to call Hunter Biden, the Ukraine whistleblower and several other witnesses to testify in the Trump impeachment inquiry despite continuing to label the process a "sham."
A House GOP witness list and letter first reported on by Fox News on Saturday demands House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff approve the public testimony of several people tied to the Ukraine scandal. The witness list included several figures with alleged damning ties to Biden as well as people involved with the start of the 2016 Trump-Russia investigation.
Republican Congressman Devin Nunes penned a letter demanding Democrats give President Donald Trump a public forum to "confront his accusers."
In addition to former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, the witness list called for the public testimony of the now-unidentified whistleblower who first brought attention to Trump's July phone call and alleged quid pro quo with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Schiff recently suggested that testimony from the whistleblower is unnecessary despite claiming in September that the anonymous individual who first outed Trump's phone call would appear "very soon."
One name on the list is Devon Archer, who Trump himself recently labeled a "Ukraine gas exec." In a now-deleted tweet from early October, the president produced a picture appearing to show both Bidens and Archer golfing in an effort to connect them to Archer, an American businessman who once sat on the board of a Ukrainian-based private oil gas company, Burisma Holdings. Biden joined that firm shortly after Archer in 2014.
Also on the list is Nellie Ohr, an opposition researcher at Fusion GPS, which commissioned the Christopher Steele dossier. The now-infamous document was at first paid for by Republican opponents to Trump before being handed over to the campaign of Hillary Clinton. The Steele dossier played a major role in kickstarting Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
According to Fox News, Ohr testified in October 2018 that Fusion GPS had received information from Ukrainian sources.
Also on the GOP witness list is Alexandra Chalupa, a former DNC contractor, who Republican Senator Chuck Grassley accused of working "simultaneously" for the Clinton campaign, a foreign government and the DNC to bring down former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Several of the witnesses being called by Republicans have already spoken with the Democrat-led House investigators. These individuals being called back include former National Security Council official Tim Morrison, ex-Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker, and State Department official David Hale.
"Americans see through this sham impeachment process, despite the Democrats' efforts to retroactively legitimize it last week," Nunes wrote in his letter to Schiff Saturday.
"To provide transparency to your otherwise opaque and unfair process, and after consultation with [House Oversight Committee] Ranking Member Jim Jordan and [House Foreign Affairs Committee] Ranking Member Michael McCaul, the American people deserve to hear from the following witnesses in an open setting," Nunes continued.
Nunes has demanded that Schiff personally sit for a "closed-door deposition" before putting on what he described as a "public show trial" to condemn Trump.
Under House rules in place over the impeachment inquiry, Democrats have the final say in approving the witnesses placed on the GOP wish list.
