GOP impeachment report: Trump's Ukraine actions 'appropriate'

House Republicans defended President Trump’s decision to temporarily withhold security aid from Ukraine and accused Democrats of running an “abusive” impeachment investigation in a report released Monday. Democrats are pursuing articles of impeachment against Trump based on allegations he tried to bribe Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Trump’s political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

Republicans argue in a 110-page report, however, that Trump has done nothing wrong and did not try to obstruct what they describe as unfair and partisan House impeachment proceedings. "House Democrats have been trying to undo the results of President Trump's historic election since before he was sworn in,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Monday. “Today’s report clearly shows how weak the Democrats’ case for impeachment is and that they have failed to find a single, legitimate reason to impeach the president.” Republicans made the case that Trump had every reason to question Ukraine’s ability to end pervasive government corruption before handing over $391 million in security aid. “Understood in this proper context, the President’s initial hesitation to meet with President Zelensky or to provide U.S. taxpayer-funded security assistance to Ukraine without thoughtful review is entirely prudent,” Republicans wrote Monday.

The GOP issued the report before House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff was expected to send his own report on impeachment to the House Judiciary Committee, which will hold a public hearing on Wednesday. Republicans have been highly critical of the impeachment investigation, which no GOP lawmaker voted to support. In the report, they denounced the proceedings as “an orchestrated campaign to upend our political system.” The GOP report argues against the impeachment articles Democrats are formulating, including obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. The president “did not engage in a cover-up” of his interactions with Zelensky, Republicans wrote, noting that the president released a partial transcript of the July 25 call with Zelensky, as well as a redacted version of a complaint by an anonymous whistleblower. “To the extent Democrats allege that President Trump sought to cover up his July 25 telephone conversation with President Zelensky, the facts do not support such a charge,” House GOP lawmakers wrote.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/gop-impeachment-report-trumps-ukraine-actions-appropriate

Report of Evidence in the Democrats Impeachment Inquiry

https://republicans-oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2019-12-02-Report-of-Evidence-in-the-Democrats-Impeachment-Inquiry-in-the-House-of-Representatives.pdf

Impeachment witness list loaded with Trump critics

House Democrats announced a list of four constitutional law experts who will testify at a Dec. 4 public impeachment hearing, and the panel will include pundits who have criticized the Trump administration and defended the impeachment proceedings. It also includes a witness who has criticized the impeachment investigation. The Democrats have summoned Noah Feldman, a Harvard Law School professor, to testify in Wednesday’s hearing on the constitutional grounds for impeaching the president. Feldman was among the first people to suggest Trump was trying to bribe Ukrainian government officials into investigating his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. Democrats have adopted the term, which Feldman in September said constitutes an impeachable offense. "What makes Trump’s alleged conduct so terrible is not that he froze aid to Ukraine for a policy purpose. What makes Trump’s alleged conduct outrageous is the appearance that he was doing it for his own personal benefit," Feldman wrote for Bloomberg Opinion. Feldman has called for a new special counsel to investigate Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr, and he also called on Democrats to make the often secretive impeachment proceedings more accessible to the public.

Stanford Law professor Pamela Karlan, a former Obama administration Justice Department official, is also a witness, Democrats announced Monday. Karlan is among 42 legal scholars who signed a letter before Trump took office urging him to change his views on a number of issues and criticizing his rhetoric. "Although we sincerely hope that you will take your constitutional oath seriously, so far you have offered little indication that you will," the letter said. "We feel a responsibility to challenge you in the court of public opinion, and we hope that those directly aggrieved by your administration will challenge you in the courts of law."

A third witness, Michael Gerhardt, is a University of North Carolina law school professor who wrote in the Atlantic that the impeachment proceedings are "fully legitimate.” A fourth witness listed by Democrats, but possibly requested by the GOP, is George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley, who has criticized how Democrats have handled the impeachment process.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/impeachment-witness-list-loaded-with-trump-critics

'NO CASE': Trump floats taking impeachment to Supreme Court

President Trump pondered whether the Supreme Court could intervene in the impeachment by House Democrats in a Monday evening tweet. Trump, 73, revealed he read the report Republicans provided on the House Intelligence Committee in which they made their case against impeachment. The Republican report will stand as a defense against the report set to be released by Chairman Adam Schiff later this week laying out the Democratic case for impeaching Trump. The president claimed that Republicans did a “great job” compiling their version of the report, saying that Democrats have “no case” and that impeachment “shouldn’t even be allowed.” He questioned whether he should take House Democrats to court over impeachment to get a ruling from the Supreme Court.

“Just landed in the United Kingdom, heading to London for NATO meetings tomorrow. Prior to landing I read the Republicans Report on the Impeachment Hoax. Great job! Radical Left has NO CASE. Read the Transcripts. Shouldn’t even be allowed,” Trump tweeted. “Can we go to Supreme Court to stop?”

It is not clear how much help the courts would be. A U.S. district court judge ruled that members of the White House do not have “absolute immunity” from congressional subpoenas and that members of the administration, such as White House counsel Don McGahn, must comply. The White House has already announced its intention to appeal the ruling to a higher court. The ruling on McGahn was related to testimony surrounding Trump’s actions during the Mueller investigation and not the impeachment drama surrounding his call with Ukrainian leaders, but the ruling could determine whether people such as John Bolton will be required to testify. If the impeachment passes the House and goes to the Senate, Chief Justice John Roberts will preside over the Senate’s impeachment trial.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/no-case-trump-floats-taking-impeachment-to-supreme-court