House Judiciary Committee hears evidence on Trump impeachment charges
The House Judiciary Committee is meeting Monday morning to receive a report detailing the findings of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump that could lead to articles of impeachment being voted on as early as this week.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the panel’s chairman, sent a letter to the White House late Sunday that includes the House Intelligence Committee’s report from its investigation culled from interviews with former and current diplomatic and administration officials.
Nadler said the Democrat-controlled Judiciary Committee must move forward with articles of impeachment “because of the threat that [Trump’s] pattern of conduct poses to the election itself.”
“We have a very rock-solid case. I think the case we have, if presented to a jury, would be a guilty verdict in about three minutes flat,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
If approved, the full House could vote on the articles of impeachment by Christmas, setting the stage for a trial in the GOP-controlled Senate.
It’s unlikely the Senate would act to remove the president, which would require a two-thirds vote. Republicans hold 53 seats in the chamber.
GOP Sen. Ted Cruz called the process in the House a “kangaroo court” and asserted it would go down in flames in the Senate.
“It’s going to go to the Senate, it’s going to go nowhere. And I think the American people know this is a waste of time and this is Democrats putting on a circus,” Cruz said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Democrats allege that Trump abused the power of his office by using as leverage nearly $400 million in military assistance to coerce Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who worked for a Ukrainian energy company.
The president has said there was nothing wrong with his July 25 call to Zelensky, and his Republican allies claim Trump held up the aid because he was concerned about the level of corruption in the country and didn’t want American tax dollars wasted.
The House Intelligence Committee released its 300-page report last week.
“The impeachment inquiry has found that President Trump, personally and acting through agents within and outside of the U.S. government, solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, to benefit his reelection,” Rep. Adam Schiff, leader of the Intelligence Committee, wrote in the report.
Republicans on the panel also released a report defending the president’s actions.
“The evidence presented does not prove any of these Democrat allegations and none of the Democrats’ witnesses testified to having evidence of bribery, extortion, or any high crime or misdemeanor,” the 123-page report said.
With Post wires
