CHARLESTON, W.Va. — As a member of the House Oversight Committee, Congresswoman Carol Miller, R-W.Va., has been entitled to attend impeachment inquiry hearings, but the first four transcripts of testimony released this week don’t list Miller in attendance.
Miller did participate in a Republican protest of closed-door testimony on Oct. 23 while also acknowledging that her committee assignment meant she had a right to be in the hearings.
This morning I stood with my Republican colleagues in an attempt to end the Democrats’ secrecy regarding impeachment. As a member of @GOPoversight, I am allowed inside, but all members and the American people deserve the same transparency. pic.twitter.com/n4a3O61CX8
— Carol Miller (@RepCarolMiller) October 23, 2019
Congress has nearly completed the opening stages of an inquiry over whether President Donald Trump withheld congressionally-approved military aid to Ukraine, which is in active armed conflict with neighboring Russia, and a meeting with Ukraine’s newly-elected president.
The inquiry is focused on whether Trump conditioned U.S. support on investigations into whether Ukraine played a role in the 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the role of Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden’s son Hunter on the board of a natural gas company in Ukraine.
Congressional Democrats contend such an exchange would represent an abuse of power meant to help Trump in the 2020 election.
Miller is a first-term congresswoman representing West Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District, which covers a swath of southern West Virginia. Her 2018 campaign focused on support for Trump’s policies.
In recent weeks, Miller has criticized the secrecy of the impeachment hearings so far, describing “Soviet-style tactics.”
But as four transcripts of testimony were released this week, Miller’s name was not listed among those attending those sessions. Not all witness transcripts have been released yet.
Miller’s office, in response to questions by MetroNews, said she has been attending the hearings when she can.
“Even though Congresswoman Miller opposes the premise and the process of impeachment, she has been present throughout the interviews as her committee obligations and schedule allowed,” stated Samantha Cantrell, the spokeswoman for Miller’s congressional office.
Beyond that, though, Miller was declining to elaborate.
“We’re going to hold off on a specific comment about exact topics or events for now,” Cantrell said. “We might not agree that these interviews should be behind closed doors, but they are, and so Congresswoman Miller is being abundantly cautious about details until we bring the interviews into the public.”
Testimony in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump has been going on for weeks in a sensitive compartmented information facility.
Democrats said the closed-door nature was a necessary aspect of investigation to prevent witnesses from improperly aligning their testimony. Republicans objected to secrecy, noting that aspects of testimony wound up being leaked.
The House Intelligence Committee has been leading the impeachment inquiry, but it has also involved the Oversight and Foreign Affairs Committees.
That means about 100 members of the House, which currently has 432 lawmakers, have been allowed to attend. Of those, 47 are Republicans like Miller.
On Oct. 23, Republican members of Congress protested the private hearings.
Dozens, including Congressman Alex Mooney of West Virginia, pushed into the secure hearing area and stayed for several hours, delaying scheduled testimony.
“Most of America has their representative unable to represent them at these hearings,” Mooney told MetroNews that day. “This is an investigation, openly stated, to impeach President Trump. That is what they are trying to do.”
Mooney sent out a smartphone video in which he said West Virginians should have representation in the hearings.
“These hearings have been shut off to the American people, members of congress like me who represent hundreds of thousands of West Virginians, over 600,000, should be allowed in this should be a transparent process,” he said.
Miller attended a media event that day in support of her fellow GOP protesters taking issue with secrecy.
“This morning I stood with my Republican colleagues in an attempt to end the Democrats’ secrecy regarding impeachment,” she stated.
On Oct. 31, the House voted on a resolution setting out rules as the impeachment process moves on to a public phase. The vote was 232 to 196, with two Democrats joining all Republicans in voting against passage.
The resolution called for transcripts of prior testimony to be released, the process that began this week, and set the ground rules for upcoming public hearings.
Miller was among Republicans still objecting to the process.
“Their investigation is centered around secret hearings and selective leaks designed to damage the President. This process lacks transparency and fairness,” she stated. “For these reasons, I oppose this resolution.”
This week, House leaders started releasing transcripts of the testimony that had earlier been secret.
The first to be released on Monday included testimony by Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, and by former top State Department aide Michael McKinley, who recently resigned in protest.
On Tuesday, transcripts were released of testimony by Kurt Volker, who worked in a volunteer capacity as special envoy to Ukraine until his resignation on Sept. 27, and Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union.
The transcripts so far represent hundreds of pages and hours of testimony. Each lists the members of Congress who attended.
But Miller’s name, so far, is not listed.