Written by by SARAH FORTINSKY at thehill.com
Democrats are calling on House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) to produce evidence from a closed-door deposition Tuesday, after he accused them of “witness intimidation.”
In an interview with Newsmax Tuesday, Comer accused Democrats by name of intimidating witness Tony Bobulinski, whose credibility Democrats brought into question, ahead of the Tuesday deposition. Bobulinski’s is the latest in a series of interviews conducted as part of the GOP-led impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
“I’ve never seen such witness intimidation as what I saw today. And it wasn’t necessarily from the Democrat staff who were leading the deposition. It was from the members. It was from Jamie Raskin. It was from Goldman. It was from Garcia. It was from Crockett. They were there. They were wagging their fingers. They were pointing, they were yelling, they were calling Tony Bobulinski a liar. They were telling him to shut up,” Comer said, adding that Bobulinski is an “American hero.”
The Democrats who were mentioned by name all shot back against Comer, calling on him to release video footage or transcripts from the interview in order to back up his claim, which they all claimed was false.
Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Comer referred The Hill to his Tuesday statement in which Comer described Democrats’ behavior as “shameful” during the testimony and said he would “soon release the transcript” from the interview.
“Chair Comer knows he can’t defend the credibility of the litigious Tony Bobulinksi, so he’s crying witness ‘intimidation.’ Release the tape!” House Oversight Democrats posted on X, formerly Twitter, in response to Comer’s accusation.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) responded to the Newsmax interview, writing on X, “Chairman @JamesComer: if you think that was ‘witness intimidation,’ please release the video you took of the interview so the American people can be the judge.”
“You brought in a Trump campaign plant to peddle your same lies,” Goldman continued. “The evidence matters, not your baseless allegations.”