House Democrats expected to unveil impeachment articles after contentious hearing
WASHINGTON – House Democrats plan to announce their impeachment articles against President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning after a final, raucous House Judiciary Committee hearing Monday in which they accused him of jeopardizing the nation’s democracy in a reckless bid for political survival.
The chairs of the House committees involved in the impeachment inquiry finalized plans for the announcement during a meeting Monday night with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-calif. The Democrats are widely expected to accuse Trump of abuse of power and attempting to obstruct congressional investigations.
Monday’s proceedings began with a protester accusing the Judiciary Committee’s chairman of treason and grew only more rancorous from there. Republicans repeatedly tried to grind down the proceeding with objections, forcing committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, DN.Y., to wield his gavel to silence members arguing over one another.
“You need to call balls and strikes the right way,” Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the committee, told Nadler, accusing him of steamrolling opposition. When Nadler continued whacking the gavel, Collins mocked the chairman, saying, “Bang it harder.”
Little new was revealed during the daylong hearing, a culmination of more than two months of congressional inquiry into Trump’s request that Ukraine’s president investigate a potential Democratic rival in next year’s election as well as a debunked conspiracy theory about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
No other hearings have been scheduled. Democrats are expected to formally pass the impeachment resolution through committee later this week and push for a full House vote to impeach Trump next week.
Democrats say Trump’s pressure on Ukraine – which came while he withheld a promised White House visit for President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and nearly $400 million in congressionally mandated security aid for the Eastern European country as it fends off Russia-backed separatists – constitutes an impeachable offense.
At the center of the hearing were dueling presentations from Republican and Democratic lawyers, who detailed the parties’ divergent conclusions about Trump’s conduct.
“We are here today because Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the
United States, abused the power of his office – the American presidency – for his personal political benefit,” Democratic staff attorney Daniel Goldman said.
Republican counsel Stephen Castor argued that Democrats have searched since the inauguration for a reason to impeach Trump.
“Democrats went searching for a set of facts on which to impeach the president,” Castor said. They settled on the Ukraine call, he said, referring to the July 25 conversation in which Trump pressed Zelenskiy to open the investigations.
“To impeach a president who 63 million people voted for over eight lines in a call transcript is baloney,” Castor said, adding that Trump did not act with “malicious intent.”
At times the counsels appeared to be examining different evidence. Barry Berke, a Democratic lawyer, asked Castor to confirm that Trump wanted Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, the former vice president who is a potential opponent in next year’s election.
“I don’t think the record supports that,” Castor said.
Berke was incredulous, pointing out the request was reflected in the White House memo summarizing the July 25 call between Trump and Zelenskiy. Castor was unmoved, saying, “I think it’s ambiguous.”
Berke turned to Goldman, the Democratic lawyer testifying alongside Castor. “I don’t think there’s any other way to read the words on the page than to conclude that,” Goldman said.
A White House-released account of the call quotes Trump as mentioning both Biden and his son, who was previously employed by a Ukrainian energy company, and saying: “(I)f you can look into it ... It sounds terrible to me.” Ukrainian prosecutors say there is no evidence of wrongdoing by either Biden.