Democrats challenge Comer over ‘witness intimidation’ claims

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.”

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) similarly demanded Comer release the transcript, saying, “Hey Chairman Comer. You invited a sham witness and we asked basic questions — his lack of credibility is on you! Why not release the transcript?”

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) denied Comer’s suggestion.

“Let’s read between the lines here: we asked questions on the very real credibility issues with your witness. If his claims can’t stand up to the most basic scrutiny, that’s on you. Sorry to ruin your circus!” she wrote in response to the interview.

House Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) asked Comer ahead of the Tuesday deposition to corroborate any claims from Bobulinski with testimony from other Trump administration and campaign officials. Raskin said Bobulinski raised “giant red flags,” pointing to refuted claims he has made publicly about President Biden and about the 2020 presidential election.

In a statement following the testimony, Raskin wrote that the deposition proceeded as expected.

“Just as expected, Republicans’ ‘star witness’ and Donald Trump’s political pawn repeated the same debunked and vacuous allegations against President Biden, recycled from Trump’s 2020 campaign,” he wrote.

“Over the course of his more than eight-hour long interview, Mr. Bobulinski did not provide any evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden, nor did he provide any evidence at all that President Biden was involved in his family’s business dealings. Mr. Bobulinski testified that neither Hunter nor James Biden ever indicated that Joe Biden would receive money from their business dealings, and Mr. Bobulinski confirmed that Joe Biden was not part of their business structure.”

This story was updated at 7:11 p.m.