Trump impeachment inquiry: House judiciary committee releases report

• Nadler: constitutional situation is ‘Framers’ worst nightmare’
• Trump derides ‘witch hunt’ while boosting US economy
• Opinion: Nancy Pelosi is bungling the impeachment inquiry

 Donald Trump answers questions from the media as he leaves the White House on Saturday. Photograph: Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images

Martin Pengelly in New York @MartinPengelly-Sat 7 Dec 2019 

The House judiciary committee released a report on the constitutional grounds for impeachment on Saturday. Shortly after that, Donald Trump once again insisted the whole thing was a “witch hunt” and “a total hoax”.

“Read the Transcripts!” Trump tweeted, referring to White House versions of calls with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

In one such call, on 25 July this year, Trump appeared to make the release of military aid conditional on Kyiv investigating Joe Biden, a political rival, and a conspiracy theory about supposed Ukrainian interference in the 2016 US election. A White House meeting with Trump was also dangled in front of Zelenskiy.

House Democrats contend the 25 July call and testimony by diplomats and Trump advisers provide evidence of serious abuse of power, and thus grounds for the impeachment of the president and his possible removal from office.

“The Framers[’] worst nightmare is what we are facing in this very moment,” the House judiciary chair, Jerry Nadler, tweeted on Saturday, after releasing the 52-page report.

In contrast to the House intelligence committee’s 300-page blockbuster released this week, which summed up bombshell testimony delivered in private and public hearings, the judiciary report was written by Democratic staffers for use in the drawing up of articles of impeachment.

President Trump abused his power, betrayed our national security and corrupted our elections, all for personal gain

Jerry Nadler

It considered what those who wrote the US constitution in the 1780s meant when they provided for presidents to be removed.

“President Trump abused his power, betrayed our national security and corrupted our elections,” Nadler wrote on Twitter, “all for personal gain. The constitution details only one remedy for this misconduct: impeachment.”

A vote on articles of impeachment against Trump is expected before the end of the year. Trump’s alleged attempts to obstruct the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in 2016, and links between Trump and Moscow, may also be considered.