Dems out ‘to upend our political system’
House Republicans on Monday released a report ripping Democrats’ impeachment proceedings — arguing months of testimony have failed to produce a smoking gun incriminating President Trump.
The 110-page report issued a staunch defense of the president’s dealing with Ukraine and accused Democrats bitter about the 2016 election of conducting an “orchestrated campaign to upend our political system.”
“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,” Republicans asserted in the report, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.
The dueling versions of the case against the president follow two weeks of House Intelligence Committee hearings during which witnesses — mainly diplomats and administration officials — testified that $391 million in security aid to Ukraine was held up until the country would announce investigations into Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Trump also wanted President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation into Ukraine’s actions prior to the 2016 election.
An unsubstantiated theory claims Ukraine interfered in the election on behalf of Hillary Clinton.
The Intelligence Committee is scheduled to vote on Democrats’ final report Tuesday before handing the document to the Judiciary Committee, which holds its first public hearing on Wednesday while Trump is in London for the NATO summit.
House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes of California, Oversight Committee ranking member Jim Jordan of Ohio and Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Michael McCaul of Texas — all ardent Trump backers — wrote the minority report.
“The Democrats’ impeachment inquiry is not the organic outgrowth of serious misconduct; it is an orchestrated campaign to upend our political system,” the Republicans wrote.
Trump in a July 25 phone call to
Zelensky asked for an investigation into Joe Biden’s efforts to oust a prosecutor who had been probing Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings, which gave Hunter Biden a cushy gig on its board of directors despite a lack of experience.
The call prompted a whistleblower complaint from a member of the intelligence community, which led to the impeachment inquiry.
In their report, Republicans asserted that the evidence found throughout the impeachment inquiry “does not establish that President Trump pressured Ukraine” to investigate the Bidens “for the purpose of benefiting him in the 2020 election.”
Nunes, Jordan and McCaul argued that a July 25 call summary released by the White House “does not reflect any improper pressure of conditionality to pressure Ukraine to investigate” Joe Biden.
But House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff of California and fellow Democrats argue the evidence of wrongdoing is overwhelming.
Trump has declined an invite to the Judiciary Committee hearing.