Impeachment fast approaches

Dems present evidence as Trump’s impeachment fast approaches

Democrats are on the brink of impeaching the president.

By ANDREW DESIDERIO and KYLE CHENEY

The impeachment of President Donald Trump is almost at hand.

House Democrats are just days away from unveiling formal charges that Trump abused his power, and on Monday they presented their case to Americans that he deserves to be removed from office for it.

“The evidence shows that Donald J. Trump, the president of the United States, has put himself before his country,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said. “He has violated his most basic responsibilities to the people. He has broken his oath. I will honor mine. If you would honor yours, then I urge you to your duty.”

The presentation of impeachment evidence to the Judiciary Committee is in many ways a formality in the House’s broader impeachment push. But it is also a chance for Democrats to summarize the complicated case against Trump one last time — and it gives Republicans another shot at defending him in public.

“Where is the impeachable offense? Why are we here?” said Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee. “What's their motive? It's November 2020.”

The result, though, is all but foreordained: impeachment articles will be produced to match the gravity of the allegations, and they are slated to be unveiled this week.

“We have to go forward with considering articles of impeachment because of the threat that his pattern of conduct poses to the election itself,” Nadler said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“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 added.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Nadler said articles of impeachment are likely to be made public “later in the week.” That would set up a full House vote on making Trump the third impeached president in U.S. history as early as next week.

Nadler declined to say how many articles will be drafted and what they will look like, but he said the final product will detail a “pattern” of Trump’s behavior beyond his posture toward Ukraine — an indication that the articles are likely to at least reference allegations that Trump obstructed former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Monday’s hearing featured a presentation of the House Intelligence Committee’s 300-page report alleging Trump pressured the Ukrainian government to investigate his political rivals and sought to withhold critical military assistance from the country and a White House meeting from its president as leverage. The Intelligence panel’s investigations director, Daniel Goldman, will present the report and take questions from lawmakers.

Republicans had an equal amount of time to present their own report to the committee — one that argues that there is no direct evidence implicating Trump and that accuses Democrats of launching “an orchestrated campaign to upend our political system.” Stephen Castor, a GOP lawyer for the committees, spearheaded Republicans’ defense.

The Judiciary Committee’s lawyers were also slated to testify before lawmakers. Barry Berke spoke on behalf of Democrats, while Castor against presented the GOP’s case. Trump and his lawyers did not participate in the hearing.

Democrats on the Judiciary Committee spent the weekend strategizing at the Capitol behind closed doors ahead of Monday’s hearing. The lawmakers also huddled with Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor who supports impeaching the president.

Several lawmakers and aides said members of the storied panel also held informal talks about the substance and scope of potential articles of impeachment. House Democrats are likely to draft at least two articles — one on abuse of power and another on obstruction of Congress.

It remains unclear whether Democrats intend to charge Trump with bribery — an offense specifically mentioned in the Constitution — or obstruction of justice based on Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and Trump’s efforts to thwart the probe.

“I can tell you as a former prosecutor, it's always been, you know, my strategy in a charging decision — and an impeachment in the House is essentially a charging decision — to charge those that there is the strongest and most overwhelming evidence and not try to charge everything, even though you could charge other things,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on CBS’ "Face the Nation."

Nadler’s comments indicate the articles are likely to include evidence drawn from the Mueller report, though it remains unclear whether Democrats will draft a separate article on it.

“There are a wide variety of factors that have to be considered, including the degree of proof, the degree of confidence and where the members of the caucus are,” Nadler said on “Meet the Press.” “We certainly have an abundance of evidence on various things.”

On Saturday, the committee released a staff report on the constitutional grounds for impeachment in the context of Trump’s alleged misconduct. The report, which is based on similar documents created during the Nixon and Clinton impeachment processes, also seeks to rebut claims from Republicans that impeachment amounts to the reversal of an election.

Trump’s GOP allies on the panel, led by Collins, have sought to delay the proceedings as they continue to argue that the process is illegitimate and does not provide fairness or due process to the president.

“There’s a big difference between what is being alleged against the president of the United States and what actually happened,” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a top Trump ally, said Sunday on “State of the Union.”

On Saturday, Collins demanded that Nadler postpone Monday’s hearing, citing a new tranche of documents the Republican side of the committee received over the weekend.

Nadler said on Sunday that he would not call any of the witnesses Republicans had requested. That list includes Schiff, Hunter Biden, and the whistleblower whose complaint set the impeachment inquiry into motion.