Dan Flynn’s House Select Committee is breaking its own rules in order to deny persecuted UT Regent Wallace Hall his right to cross-examine witnesses the government brings against him.
House Rule 4, Section 3 says, ““… the rules of evidence and procedure in the civil courts of Texas shall govern the hearings and operations of each committee ….” Texas Rule of Evidence 611(b) says, “(a) witness may be cross-examined on any matter relevant to any issue in the case, including credibility.””.
Yesterday Flynn’s committee spokesman said they would deny Hall his right to cross examination because, “This is an investigation, not a trial.” The committee seems either ignorant or is purposefully ignoring that the rule applies to all committee operations, not just trials.
Denial of the right to cross-examine is no small matter. In a story on the same topic, Tony McDonald of Empower Texans noted: Wigmore on Evidence has called cross-examination “beyond any doubt the greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of truth.” See California v. Green, 399 U.S. 149, 158 (1970). It has been called “one of the safeguards essential to a fair trial.” Alford v. United States, 282 U.S. 687 (1931).
The Texas ruling class has been trying to impeach Hall ever since he began asking too many questions about potentially unscrupulous activities, such as the children of the powerful having their kids moved ahead of other people’s kids in university admissions lines.
Rep. Flynn, chairman of this committee, is a former grassroots conservative who has quietly turned into ruling class functionary. Flynn operates out of a district not likely to put up with it for long.
-DMN article