Swalwell: Depositions provided evidence of an ‘extortion scheme’

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said depositions in the House’s impeachment inquiry have already established an “extortion scheme” by the White House.

“It’s important that the president has due process, and evidence is not a conclusion,” Swalwell said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday. “We have enough evidence from the depositions that we’ve done to warrant bringing this forward, evidence of an extortion scheme using taxpayer dollars to ask a foreign government to investigate the president’s opponents.”

NEWS: @RepSwalwell tells @margbrennan that the House Intelligence Committee has evidence of an “extortion scheme.” WATCH –> pic.twitter.com/iEMScIJxkj

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 10, 2019

Despite this, Swalwell added, “It’s important that these witnesses raise their right hands and take questions from both Republicans and Democrats… It’s important that the Republicans are afforded the opportunity to suggest which witnesses we should call and we’ll decide whether that’s relevant.”

Asked by Brennan whether the House would call former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, as recommended by Republicans, Swalwell responded “as Chairman Schiff has said, we’re not going to go back in time and revisit conspiracy theories that were implicated in the president’s call,” but echoed colleague Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) in saying other names on the GOP list would likely be called.

Brennan also asked Swalwell about the House’s unwillingness to wait to resolve in court whether former National Security Advisor John Bolton could be compelled to testify.

“We’ve heard from three of his deputies who have provided consistent testimony on what was going on with this shakedown scheme,” Swalwell said.

“We don’t have time for an upcoming election that could be compromised by the president’s conduct,” he added, saying that if Bolton or acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney had exculpatory testimony to offer, the White House would send them in “on horses.”