WASHINGTON: Democrats laid out the case for the impeachment of President Donald Trump Monday as they prepared to issue formal charges against the US leader.
Four months after an anonymous whistleblower sparked the investigation of Trump for seeking illicit political favours from Ukraine, Democrats said there was clear evidence that he had committed bribery, abused his power, and obstructed the investigation.
“President Trump put himself before country. These facts are not in dispute,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said. Facing an almost certain vote in the coming weeks to make Trump the third president impeached and placed on trial, Doug Collins, the senior Republican on the committee, countered that the effort was a simply “a good PR move” for Democrats ahead of next year´s national elections.
“It´s all political,” Collins said, dismissing the allegations. “This is all about a clock and a calendar.”
It was not clear whether Trump was watching the proceedings that could cast a dark stain on his presidency. “Witch Hunt,” he tweeted as the hearing got under way. “The Do Nothing Democrats are a disgrace!”
Tempers flared as Republicans tried to derail the hearing at its opening with procedural moves, and a lone protestor was ejected after shouting in the president´s defense. “We voted for Donald Trump and Americans are sick of this impeachment. Trump is innocent,” he shouted.
Trump 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. Trump also pressed Kiev to further investigate a widely-dismissed allegation that the Ukraine government helped 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 center of that scheme was President Donald Trump,” he told the hearing.
Berke played videos of testimony by top US diplomats involved with Ukraine supporting the charges, and a video of 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,” Berke said. “He put his political re-election interests over the nation´s national security and the integrity of its elections.”
“Of course we have an election coming up,” he said, in a nod to Republican criticisms. “That´s not a reason to postpone this discussion. That´s a reason we must have this discussion, to make sure it is not interfered with — to make sure this president doesn´t do it, to make sure future presidents do not do it.”
Meanwhile, the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump in a sharply divided US Congress enter a new phase Monday when the House Judiciary Committee convenes a hearing expected to result in specific charges against the Republican leader. The president has repeatedly blasted the House inquiry as a partisan attack — he tweeted Sunday that the Judiciary hearings are part of a “hoax” by the “No Due Process, Do Nothing Democrats.”