Trump impeachment hearing opened by Congress for first time

Corey Lewandowski, the outspoken Republican operative who served as Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, has appeared before Congress as part of the House Judiciary Committee’s first official hearing in a Democratic-led impeachment investigation.

Mr Lewandowski, a 45-year-old political commentator currently mulling a bid for Senate in his home state of New Hampshire, was unlikely to provide Democrats with much new information as they decide whether to draft articles of impeachment against the president, however. Two other witnesses who were subpoenaed alongside Mr Lewandowski, former White House aides Rick Dearborn and Rob Porter, were not expected to show up at all after the White House ordered them to decline the request.

Prior to the Tuesday hearing, Mr Lewandowski tweeted: “Excited about the opportunity to remind the American people today there was no collusion no obstruction.”

The tweet echoed Mr Trump’s analysis of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The special counsel found that there was not enough evidence to establish a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, and he also found that Mr Trump could not be exonerated on obstruction of justice.

Attorney General William Barr later made his own decision on obstruction, saying there was insufficient evidence.

A devoted friend and supporter of the Republican president, Mr Lewandowski is likely to fiercely defend the president, and he isn’t expected to elaborate much beyond what he told Mr Mueller’s investigators last year.