President Donald Trump committed criminal bribery and wire fraud, the House Judiciary Committee alleges in a report that will accompany articles of impeachment this week.
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“Although President Trump’s actions need not rise to the level of a criminal violation to justify impeachment, his conduct here was criminal,” the panel’s Democrats argue, labeling Trump’s behavior “both constitutional and criminal in character” and contending that the president “betrayed the people of this nation” and should be removed from office.
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The committee contends that Trump’s actions were part of a pattern than began with his “welcoming” of Russian interference in the 2016 election, and continues to this day. In fact, the panel’s Democrats cite his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s trip to Ukraine just last week as evidence that Trump intends to continue the alleged scheme. Trump’s lack of remorse over the Ukraine allegations, Democrats claim, is evidence that he poses a “continuing threat if left in office.”
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The panel’s report, which comes on the heels of a House Intelligence Committee-led investigation that formed the basis of the articles of impeachment, contends that Trump’s most acute abuse of his power occurred during a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, when Trump asked his counterpart to launch investigations targeting former Vice President Joe Biden and other Democrats.
Though the Judiciary Committee report indicates this evidence alone is enough to warrant Trump’s impeachment, the report cites as an “aggravating factor” that Trump — through Giuliani and other allies — repeatedly dangled and withheld an Oval Office visit from Zelensky that the Ukrainian leader desperately wanted as a show of support amid his country’s ongoing war with Russia.
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Democrats argue that Trump crossed the threshold into criminal behavior with his posture toward Zelensky, writing in the report that his request for the announcement of politically motivated investigations constituted the solicitation of a bribe under federal law.
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The committee also alleges that Trump violated the honest services wire fraud statute during the July 25 phone call, as well as during a separate phone call a day later with Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union. Those “foreign wire communications” were done “in furtherance of an ongoing bribery scheme,” according to the report.
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Democrats claim the Ukraine allegations against Trump are part of a “pattern” of misconduct that began with Trump’s alleged solicitation of Russian assistance in the 2016 election — a matter probed by Mueller for nearly two years. Mueller also found that Trump made multiple attempts to hinder or end his investigation.
“The pattern is as unmistakable as it is unnerving,” the Judiciary Committee argues.
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In an accompanying 18-page dissent, Judiciary Committee Republicans, led by Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), assail Democrats’ evidence as “paltry” and an “affront to the constitutional process of impeachment.”
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Collins rejects Democrats’ articles of impeachment as “vague,” “hyperbolic” and “misleading,” particularly as they describe fear of future presidential misconduct. He also blasts Democrats for declining to offer any articles of impeachment that specifically allege criminal violations.
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Among Democrats’ other conclusions was a contention that waiting for the federal courts to resolve fights with the White House over witnesses and documents — as Collins urged — would be “unnecessary and impractical.” Rather, they argue, Trump has abused the court process to delay Democrats’ impeachment proceedings, and waiting for a judicial ruling would render the House “subservient” to courts in a process meant to be entirely controlled by Congress.
Politico
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