WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Corey Lewandowski’s appearance before the House Judiciary Committee (all times local):
1:50 p.m.
Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is charging that House Democrats are “going down rabbit holes” and “focusing on petty and personal politics” as he is testifying at what the committee is calling its first impeachment hearing.
Lewandowski says that investigations of President Donald Trump have been “populated by many Trump haters who had their own agenda — to take down a duly elected President of the United States.”
House Democrats have called in Lewandowski to testify about former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Mueller’s investigators detailed episodes in which Trump asked Lewandowski to direct then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to limit Mueller’s investigation. Mueller said he could not exonerate Trump on obstruction of justice.
Lewandowski said there’s been “harassment of the president from the day he won the election.”
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1:30 p.m.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler says former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski “remains obligated” to answer the committee’s questions despite a White House order that he not discuss his confidential conversations with the president.
Lewandowski is testifying at the committee’s first official hearing in what the panel is calling an impeachment investigation. The White House sent Nadler a letter late Monday saying that Lewandowski was not allowed to discuss his conversations with President Donald Trump beyond what is already public in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
Nadler said in a letter back to the White House on Tuesday that Nadler must answer questions because the committee has subpoenaed him.
Mueller’s investigators detailed two episodes in which Trump asked Lewandowski to direct then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to limit Mueller’s investigation.
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12:50 a.m.
As they investigate President Donald Trump, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee will hold their first official hearing in what they are calling an impeachment investigation.
Trump’s outspoken former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, is scheduled to appear Tuesday to discuss the special counsel’s report on Russia’s election interference.
Lewandowski is a close friend and supporter of the president and isn’t expected to elaborate much beyond what he told the special counsel’s investigators last year. Two former White House aides who were subpoenaed alongside Lewandowski won’t show up at all, on orders from the White House.
The hearing underscores what has been a central dilemma for House Democrats all year: They have promised to investigate Trump, aggressively, but the White House has blocked their oversight requests at most every turn.
