WATCH: Democratic counsel’s questioning of committee lawyers | Trump impeachment hearings

Barry Berke, the House Democratic counsel, questioned Republican counsel Stephen Castor and fellow Democratic counsel Daniel Goldman on Dec. 9. The questioning came on the second day of public hearings by the House Judiciary Committee as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Berke asked a question that both Castor and Goldman appeared to agree on. “Is it your experience, that when someone has done something wrongful and corrupt, and they’re dealing with somebody who’s not in the scheme, that they state their intentions to do something wrongful and corrupt?” Berke asked. Castor said no, in a general sense. In answering Berke’s question, Goldman said, “You almost never have a defendant ... who would ever explicitly say … 'I’m going to bribe you now. I’m going to ask you for a bribe. I’m going to extort you.' That’s not how things work.” The Judiciary and Intelligence committees have led the probe, hearing testimony from witnesses and legal experts about Trump’s conduct. House lawmakers are currently drafting the articles of impeachment, on which House lawmakers are anticipated to vote in the coming weeks. The impeachment case has revolved around a July 25 phone call in which Trump asked the president of Ukraine to investigate former vice president and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.


For more on who’s who in the Trump impeachment inquiry, read:


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