The 169-page report makes the case for Trump's removal from office.
President
Donald Trump committed criminal bribery and wire fraud, the House Judiciary
Committee alleges in a report that will accompany articles of impeachment this
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The report, a 169-page assessment
of the case for Trump’s removal from office, contends that Trump
committed “multiple federal crimes” — ones that Democrats addressed
under the broad umbrella of “abuse of power,” the first article of
impeachment against the president.
“Although
President Trump’s actions need not rise to the level of a criminal violation to
justify impeachment, his conduct here was criminal,” the panel’s Democrats
argue, labeling Trump’s behavior “both constitutional and criminal in
character” and contending that the president “betrayed the people of this
nation” and should be removed from office.
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The
staff report, which was filed to the House Rules Committee just after midnight
Monday, argues that Trump directed a months-long scheme to solicit foreign
interference in the 2020 election, the allegation that forms the core of the
two articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress —
approved by the Judiciary Committee last week. Democrats emphasized that
proving a criminal violation is not required to justify impeachment.
“The
Framers were not fools. They authorized impeachment for a reason, and that
reason would have been gutted if impeachment were limited to crimes,” the
report states.
The
Judiciary Committee’s report presents the panel’s most thorough analysis yet of
why Democrats believe the accusations against Trump are worthy of immediate
impeachment and a recommendation that the Senate remove Trump from office. It
comes a day before the Rules Committee formally considers the articles of
impeachment, ahead of a likely Wednesday vote on the House floor.
The
committee contends that Trump’s actions were part of a pattern than began with
his “welcoming” of Russian interference in the 2016 election, and continues to
this day. In fact, the panel’s Democrats cite his personal lawyer Rudy
Giuliani’s trip to Ukraine just last week as evidence that Trump intends to
continue the alleged scheme. Trump’s lack of remorse over the Ukraine
allegations, Democrats claim, is evidence that he poses a “continuing threat if
left in office.”
“President
Trump has made it clear that he believes he is free to use his presidential
powers the same way, to the same ends, whenever and wherever he pleases,” the
report states.
The
panel’s report, which comes on the heels of a House Intelligence Committee-led
investigation that formed the basis of the articles of impeachment, contends
that Trump’s most acute abuse of his power occurred during a July 25 phone call
with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, when Trump asked his counterpart
to launch investigations targeting former Vice President Joe Biden and other
Democrats.
Though
the Judiciary Committee report indicates this evidence alone is enough to
warrant Trump’s impeachment, the report cites as an “aggravating factor” that
Trump — through Giuliani and other allies — repeatedly dangled and withheld an
Oval Office visit from Zelensky that the Ukrainian leader desperately wanted as
a show of support amid his country’s ongoing war with Russia.
The
report also notes that Trump ordered a freeze of $391 million in military aid
to Ukraine over the objections of advisers at the State Department, Pentagon
and National Security Council, which he only lifted after Democrats began
investigating the matter.
Democrats
argue that Trump crossed the threshold into criminal behavior with his posture
toward Zelensky, writing in the report that his request for the announcement of
politically motivated investigations constituted the solicitation of a bribe
under federal law.
Those
investigations were valuable to Trump personally, and he used his official
power to schedule a state visit and withhold military aid to obtain them, the
panel says.
These
actions are a “corrupt” use of Trump’s authority that satisfies the final
element of a bribery crime, Democrats argue.
The
committee also alleges that Trump violated the honest services wire fraud
statute during the July 25 phone call, as well as during a separate phone call
a day later with Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union.
Those “foreign wire communications” were done “in furtherance of an ongoing
bribery scheme,” according to the report.
“Fundamentally,
the president has deprived the American people of the honorable stewardship
that the nation expects and demands of its chief executive," the panel
alleges, noting that the federal wire fraud statute imposes a 20-year
imprisonment.
In an
accompanying 18-page dissent, Judiciary Committee Republicans, led by Rep. Doug
Collins (R-Ga.), assail Democrats’ evidence as “paltry” and an “affront to the
constitutional process of impeachment.”
“If
President Nixon’s impeachment proceedings are the ‘gold standard’ for
presidential impeachment inquiries, these proceedings, in stark contrast, will
go down in history as the quintessential example of how such proceedings should
not be conducted,” Collins writes.
Collins
rejects Democrats’ articles of impeachment as “vague,” “hyperbolic” and
“misleading,” particularly as they describe fear of future presidential
misconduct. He also blasts Democrats for declining to offer any articles of
impeachment that specifically allege criminal violations.
“While
individual articles of impeachment have been passed against prior presidents
that do not allege criminality, no president has been impeached solely on
non-criminal accusations,” Collins writes. He adds that Democrats have failed
to exhaust their legal avenues to obtain information they claim Trump is
obstructing.
Among
Democrats’ other conclusions was a contention that waiting for the federal
courts to resolve fights with the White House over witnesses and documents — as
Collins urged — would be “unnecessary and impractical.” Rather, they argue,
Trump has abused the court process to delay Democrats’ impeachment proceedings,
and waiting for a judicial ruling would render the House “subservient” to
courts in a process meant to be entirely controlled by Congress.
“[T]he
House has never before relied on litigation to compel witness testimony or the
production of documents in a presidential impeachment proceeding,” the
committee concludes. “Some members of the minority have suggested otherwise,
but there is no law or practice to support such a theory.”
The
committee’s report also marks a return of sorts for the evidence unearthed by
special counsel Robert Mueller. Democrats claim the Ukraine allegations against
Trump are part of a “pattern” of misconduct that began with Trump’s alleged
solicitation of Russian assistance in the 2016 election — a matter probed by
Mueller for nearly two years. Mueller also found that Trump made multiple
attempts to hinder or end his investigation.
“The
pattern is as unmistakable as it is unnerving,” the Judiciary Committee argues.
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/16/judiciary-committee-impeachment-report-trump-committed-multiple-federal-crimes-086096