Former Trump campaign manager uncooperative at House hearing
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E-mail Xinhua, September 18, 2019
Corey Lewandowski, former campaign manager for U.S. President Donald Trump, showed an uncooperative attitude on Tuesday at a congressional hearing on alleged presidential obstruction of justice and abuse of power.
"We as a nation would be better served if elected officials like you concentrated your efforts to combat the true crises facing our country as opposed to going down rabbit holes like this hearing," Lewandowski said in his opening remarks before the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee.
Lewandowski was the first witness of what some Democrats have called an impeachment investigation against Trump.
The hearing came less than two months after former special counsel Robert Mueller testified about his report on a 22-month probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and Trump's actions to obstruct the inquiry.
As the hearing began, Lewandowski demanded that Democrats provide him a copy of the report before reading directly from it and making it clear that he wouldn't say much beyond Mueller's findings.
"He's filibustering," said Jerrold Nadler, chair of the Judiciary Committee and a New York Democrat.
Trump praised Lewandowski's performance on Twitter.
A public version of the Mueller report released earlier this year stated that there was no evidence that Trump's campaign conspired with Moscow during the 2016 election but didn't offer any conclusions about the obstruction case.
There were two episodes in which Trump asked Lewandowski to direct then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to limit Mueller's investigation, according to the report.
The uncooperative attitude from Lewandowski was expected as the White House had tried to limit the scope of his testimony.
In a letter to the House panel on Monday, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said that Lewandowski could not testify about conversations with Trump after he became president or with his senior advisers.
"The White House has directed Mr. Lewandowski not to provide information about such communications beyond the information provided in the portions of the Report that have already been disclosed to the Committee," according to the letter.
The White House also ordered two other witnesses, former Trump White House aides Rob Porter and Rick Dearborn, not to testify at Tuesday's hearing.
Lewandowski, 45, served as campaign manager for Trump's 2016 campaign from Jan. 2015 to June 2016. He is mulling a run for the U.S. Senate.
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