Speier: Hearing transcripts will likely be released in next five days

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said Sunday that transcripts of closed-door depositions in the House impeachment inquiry would be made available to the public “probably within the next five days.”

“I think the transcripts are going to start to be released next week, and that’s going to give the American people an eye on exactly what we have heard, and what we have heard is growing evidence of grounds for impeachment,” Speier said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“I don’t know if they’re all going to be released on the same day, but they’re going to be very telling to the American people. There’s no question now whether there’s a quid pro quo,” she told CBS’ Margaret Brennan.

NEW: @RepSpeier says public will see “all of the transcripts that are going to be released probably within the next five days” says they are going to be “very telling” pic.twitter.com/G6S78DFGaA

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 3, 2019

“The question for the GOP is, are they going to put Donald Trump ahead of the country?” she added.

Like her Democratic colleagues, Speier was noncommittal on the exact start time for public hearings, saying at first that they would be “very soon” but eventually getting into more specifics than fellow Democrats, telling Brennan that the week after next “is likely to be when we will start having hearings, and then of course once our work is completed, the investigation, then it will move to the Judiciary Committee.”{mosads}

Brennan asked Speier whether she agreed with Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), who tweeted that he believed U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland committed perjury during his testimony.

“I think that there are inconsistencies in his testimony based on testimony we’ve heard from other witnesses, and it will probably be appropriate for him to come back and [to] have him interviewed again… I don’t know that that decision has been made yet,” she said, but added that “at this point” she would not go as far as accusing him of perjury.