The House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released its initial impeachment report, a 300-page examination of President Donald Trump’s alleged attempts to use military aid and a coveted White House meeting to coerce Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce publicly he would investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter for corruption.
In a statement, Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the chairs of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Reform and Foreign Affairs Committees, respectively, said “the evidence is clear” that the president acted unethically.
“President Trump abused the power of his office for personal and political gain, at the expense of our national security,” the three Democrats said.
The impeachment inquiry uncovered overwhelming and uncontested evidence that President Trump abused the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference in our election for his own personal, political gain.
No one is above the law.
Read our report: https://t.co/6Hx0PZ48yw
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 3, 2019
The report details how Trump “conditioned two official acts on the public announcement of the investigations: a coveted White House visit and critical U.S. military assistance Ukraine needed to fight its Russian adversary.”
Other administration officials are also implicated in the report:
Although President Trump’s scheme intentionally bypassed many career personnel, it was undertaken with the knowledge and approval of senior Administration officials, including the President’s Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry.
Tuesday’s report may act as the basis for articles of impeachment as the inquiry into the president’s actions continues with Judiciary Committee hearings on Wednesday.
The White House fired back at the co-authors Tuesday, calling the report “like the ramblings of a basement blogger straining to prove something when there is evidence of nothing.”
White House response: “At the end of a one-sided sham process, Chair Schiff & the Dems utterly failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by @potus….Schiff’s report reads like the ramblings of a basement blogger straining to prove something when there is evidence of nothing.”
— sallykidd (@sallykidd) December 3, 2019
Notably, Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) makes an appearance in the report due to his alleged involvement in the GOP effort to dig up dirt on the Bidens. Schiff declined to comment on Nunes’ inclusion in the report but made a passing reference to his colleague in a press conference announcing the report’s publication.
“It is deeply concerning that at a time when the president of the United States was using the power of his office to dig up dirt on a political rival, that there may be evidence that there were members of Congress complicit in that activity,” said Schiff.
While Schiff was hesitant to directly call for impeachment, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) had no such qualms, tweeting that “the House Judiciary Committee should accept the Intelligence Committee report and immediately start drawing up articles of impeachment.”
We don’t need more hearings.
We need a vote.
The House Judiciary Committee should accept the Intelligence Committee report and immediately start drawing up articles of impeachment. pic.twitter.com/DXZTWtcXVk
— Rep. Ro Khanna (@RepRoKhanna) December 3, 2019
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) tweeted that considering the misdeeds described in the report, any of her colleagues who dimiss the findings “should just consider themselves enablers, co-conspirators, and resign.”
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And they should have long talk with Nunes right before they toss his ass out the door.