It was clear from the testimony offered in Wednesday's impeachment hearing into President Donald Trump that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and his investigation has a problem, according to Rep. Mike Turner: It's all built on "hearsay."
"Not only is all the investigation built on hearsay, his star witnesses, the first two out front have never spoken to the President of the United States and never met with the president or talked to him on the phone," the Ohio Republican and Intelligence Committee member told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
"They've never even gotten a memo from the president concerning Ukraine and yet here they are testifying in an impeachment proceeding that is about the president. Other than hearsay, (U.S. diplomat Bill Taylor and State Department official George Kent) were only able to tell what they had heard from others. It was a mess yesterday," he added.
Turner also dismissed Taylor's testimony that his staff recently told him they overheard Trump speaking on the phone to another diplomat, Ambassador Gordon Sondland, at a restaurant the day after Trump’s July 25 phone call with the new leader of Ukraine that sparked the impeachment inquiry.
"It's the same type of hearsay and information this whole case is based on," said Turner. "This is such hearsay that it would never be allowed in any court. The statement of what the president believed, nobody would allow that in any form of evidence. It certainly can't be taken as the truth of what the president believes."
Meanwhile, Turner said he supports the whistleblower statute, but he does not believe it applies in the current case, and he believes the person behind the report that spurred the impeachment inquiry should come forward.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.