In the News

SPRINGFIELD — The secret “grand jury” portion of the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump is over and now it’s time for public testimony, said U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Massachusetts, on Tuesday.

Neal also said a recent federal court ruling — one made by a Trump-appointed judge — strengthens his efforts as chair of House Ways & Means to get Trumps tax returns.

The Springfield Democrat addressed impeachment with reporters prior to an unrelated event at Valley Venture Mentors. During the event he stressed that despite ongoing impeachment inquiries both he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are committed to continuing the normal legislative process while seeking to work with Republicans.

The televised impeachment hearings, which begin on Wednesday, are not a meant to entertain, he said.

"Well, I hope that it's going to be a reinforcement of the evidence that has already been gathered in a grand jury type setting where the witnesses will now have a chance to make their case in a public forum," Neal said. "Instead make it about information."

On Monday, Judge Carl Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that his court was not the proper jurisdiction for Trump to sue the New York officials who have made it possible for Neal’s committee to get Trump’s state tax returns.

Nichols ruled that Trump did not sufficiently establish a conspiracy between the House Ways and Means Committee and the New York defendants. That conspiracy would have strengthened Trump's case for the lawsuit to be heard in Washington, D.C. The president’s lawyers argued that the nation’s capital was the correct venue through a legal theory known as “conspiracy jurisdiction.”

Four months ago New York law passed the TRUST Act, allowing the chairmen of three congressional tax-related committees — the House Ways and Means Committee, Senate Finance Committee and Joint Committee on Taxation — to request the state returns of public officials only after efforts to gain access to federal tax filings through the Treasury Department have failed."We think it (the ruling) helps our case. We keep moving forward on it," Neal said.

“Every day it continues to move in our direction,” he said. “We said early on, and I said publicly, that this would be a long and grinding court case.”