Partisan divide over impeachment grows
WASHINGTON: Democrats are targeting Donald Trump with two articles of impeachment after laying out their case at a hearing against a president they branded a “clear and present danger” to national security, US media report.
The articles focus on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing three officials familiar with the matter.
It added that the full House of Representatives will vote on the articles next week, ahead of a trial in the Senate.
CNN said a third article on obstruction of justice was still being debated, and the network’s sources cautioned that plans were still being finalised.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement on Monday night that highranking Democrats, including Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler and Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, would hold a press conference the next day to “announce the next steps” in the impeachment process.
Four months after a whistleblower sparked the investigation of President Trump for seeking illicit political favours from Ukraine, Democrats said at Monday’s hearing there was abundant evidence he had committed bribery, abused his power and obstructed the investigation.
“President Trump’s persistent and continuing effort to coerce a foreign country to help him cheat to win an election is a clear and present danger to our free and fair elections and to our national security,” said Daniel Goldman, counsel for the Democrats.
Facing an almost certain vote to make Mr Trump the third American leader impeached and placed on trial, top Republican Doug Collins countered that the effort was simply “a good PR move” for Democrats ahead of next year’s presidential elections.
“It’s all political,” Mr Collins said. “Where’s the impeachable offence? Why are we here?”
The allegations came in a contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing in which Republicans repeatedly punched back, while President Trump himself denounced the inquiry as a “disgrace” and a “hoax”.
Fuelling the partisan divisions in Washington, the Republicans marshalled a Department of Justice report released on Monday as ammunition for a counteroffensive.
The DoJ’s inspector general said its review of investigations into four Trump aides found no evidence of “political bias” in decisions to open the probes.
The report effectively rebutted Mr Trump’s repeated claims that the FBI illegally spied on his campaign — but Republicans seized on its findings that the bureau committed “numerous serious factual errors” related to the investigations.
The president is accused of abusing his powers by pressuring Ukraine to announce an investigation into former vice president Joe Biden, his potential challenger in the 2020 election. Mr Trump also pressed Kiev to investigate a widely dismissed allegation that the Ukraine government helped the Democrats in the 2016 election.
Barry Berke, an attorney for the Democrats, said there was “significant proof” of wrongdoing as he laid out the evidence collected by the House Intelligence Committee in a 10-week investigation.
“In the scheme to pressure Ukraine... the person at the centre of that scheme was President Donald Trump,” he told the hearing.
Mr Berke played videos of testimony by top US diplomats involved with Ukraine supporting the charges, and footage of Mr Trump claiming he has “the right to do whatever I want as president”.
Witnesses produced documents “that provide uncontroverted, clear and overwhelming evidence that President Trump did this scheme”, Mr Berke said.
Republican attorney Stephen Castor, tasked with disputing the evidence, said Democrats were simply attacking Mr Trump for policies they do not agree with.
“Democrats are obsessed with impeaching the president,” he said, calling evidence from the transcript of a July 25 phone call between Mr Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky “baloney”.
In that call, President Trump told Mr Zelensky he wanted “a favour”, including an investigation of Mr Biden and the 2016 conspiracy theory.
Democrats are determined to push through to a full House vote on formal articles of impeachment before year end. That could see Mr Trump stand trial in the Senate in January. Given the Republican majority in the Senate, it is almost certain he will be acquitted.