January 31, 2020

“The Facts Will Come Out”: Schiff Reacts to Latest Bolton Bombshell

Stefani Reynolds/CNP/Zuma

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On Friday afternoon, with the motion to hear from witnesses in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial almost certain to fail, lead House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff read aloud from a breaking New York Times article implicating the president’s own defense counsel in Trump’s scheme to “extract damaging information on Democrats from Ukrainian officials.”

Allegations from a book draft written by former national security adviser John Bolton—whom Democrats want to call as a witness—have been leaking out all week. The latest revelation: that Trump reportedly directed Bolton to help Rudy Giuliani get dirt on Democrats from Ukrainian officials—and that Pat Cipollone, who now leads the president’s impeachment defense, was included in that conversation.

“You will recall Mr. Cipollone suggesting that the House managers were concealing facts from this body,” Schiff said, after quoting from the article. “He said all the facts should come out. Well, there’s a new fact, which indicates that Mr. Cipollone was among those who were in the loop—yet another reason why we ought to hear from witnesses.”

Without the support of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), it is unlikely that Democrats will have enough votes to call witnesses in the impeachment trial. But that didn’t keep Schiff from trying.

“Just as we predicted—and it didn’t require any great act of clairvoyance—the facts will come out,” he said. “The question before you today is whether they will come out in time for you to make a complete and informed judgment as to the guilt or innocence of the president.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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