Conway says she’ll attend impeachment hearing if Schiff testifies

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Monday she would attend the upcoming House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing if House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is called to testify.

Conway told reporters at the White House that Schiff was a “fact witness” in the impeachment inquiry and criticized the Judiciary panel’s plans to have constitutional lawyers testify at Wednesday’s hearing. The White House on Sunday rejected an invitation from Democrats to participate in the event.

“Is Adam Schiff going to testify? Because he is a fact witness. That would be great. I’ll tell you what: If Adam Schiff testifies, I’ll show up on behalf of the White House,” Conway told reporters.

Her remarks came one day after the House Judiciary panel’s top Republican, Rep. Doug Collins (Ga.), said Schiff should be called to testify. Schiff led the fact-finding phase of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, and his committee is drafting a report on its conclusions that will be delivered to the Judiciary panel to kick off the next phase of the proceedings.

Trump, who seized on revelations that the whistleblower who raised concerns about the Ukraine issue contacted Schiff’s committee before filing a complaint, has similarly argued Schiff should be called to testify at a Senate trial if the House approves articles of impeachment.

Schiff said on CNN’s “State of the Union” last week that it would show “a fundamental lack of seriousness, a willingness to try to turn this into a circus, like the president would like” if the Senate were to call him as a witness.

Asked why the White House would not send its own lawyers to Wednesday’s hearing, Conway suggested on Monday that Democrats would be wasting their time listening to constitutional lawyers rather than working on legislative issues like drug pricing and infrastructure.

“What is the process? What will they be discussing? They have constitutional law experts coming in. How is that beneficial?” Conway asked. “I don’t even understand what they’re doing.”

She added that the Judiciary Committee hasn’t informed the White House of the names of the witnesses or other details about the hearing, echoing points made by White House counsel Pat Cipollone in a letter to Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) Sunday in declining to participate.

“We cannot fairly be expected to participate in a hearing while the witnesses are yet to be named and while it remains unclear whether the Judiciary Committee will afford the President a fair process through additional hearings,” Cipollone wrote.

Conway said Cipollone has made clear “that this is an unconstitutional, illegitimate process and we stand by that.”

“They have to been more definitive about what they’re doing,” she added.