Top Impeachment Investigator Steps Down From House Intelligence Panel

House Intelligence Committee majority counsel Daniel Goldman (R) and House Judiciary Committee minority counsel Steve Castor at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the grounds for the impeachment of President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 9, 2019. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

A former federal prosecutor who played a role as an impeachment investigator for House Democrats is leaving his role on the Intelligence Committee.

Daniel Goldman joined the committee at the beginning of this congressional session as the director of investigations and ultimately led the questioning of government officials during last year’s impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. He appeared in public hearings, asking questions related to whether Trump committed impeachable offenses by allegedly withholding aid to Ukraine in exchange for investigations. Trump has categorically denied the allegations.

Goldman told CNN Thursday that it was “an honor of a lifetime” to work for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) before saying that he, Schiff, and other committee members were attempting to “provide a vital check on the president, as the Constitution requires Congress to do.”

“I’m indebted to my colleagues for working tirelessly in pursuit of that objective,” he told the network. “While I am eager to return to New York to spend some much-needed time with my family, I know that the committee’s work will continue apace under Chairman Schiff’s leadership.”

House intelligence chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) at a press conference about the impeachment inquiry of President Trump, at the Capitol in Washington on Oct. 2, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

“Over the past year, Dan Goldman has provided strategic guidance, wise counsel and steady leadership to our Committee through a turbulent, but critical time,” Schiff said in a statement about Goldman’s departure. “We know that the team Dan helped us build from scratch will continue their important work, and while we will all miss him in the committee, we know that his family is excited to get him back.”

Goldman is the third attorney who was involved in the House impeachment inquiry to leave the House in the past month or so. Barry Berke and Norm Eisen, two other lawyers who had partaken in the effort, left the House Judiciary Committee, although they were more involved in the making the constitutional case for Trump’s removal, according to Politico.

Ultimately, the president was impeached in the House in a party-line vote, although he was eventually acquitted by the Senate weeks later.

Goldman had previously worked as a top prosecutor at the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York.

During an interview on the “Stay Tuned with Preet” podcast, which is hosted by former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, Goldman said the panel is still considering issuing a subpoena to former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, who Senate Democrats tried to compel for testimony in the Senate trial.

Reports have said that the departures of Goldman, Berke, and Eisen suggest that Democrats are moving away from investigations into the Trump administration amid the 2020 election.