‘Last and most extraordinary'

USA Today

'Last and most extraordinary resort': 

House Democrats release report on legal basis for impeachment
Dec. 8, 2019

WASHINGTON – Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee released a 55-page report Saturday on the constitutional grounds for the impeachment of President Donald Trump. 

"President Trump abused his power, betrayed our national security, and corrupted our elections, all for personal gain," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., in a statement. "The Constitution details only one remedy for this misconduct: impeachment."

The report does not say whether Trump should be impeached, instead leaving the question to the full House of Representatives to decide while laying out the history of impeachment throughout American history and addressing issues of constitutional law. 

The report's release comes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday she had asked chairmen of committees investigating Trump to draft articles of impeachment against him. 

House Democrats allege Trump abused his powers as president by pressuring the Ukrainian government to open investigations into his political adversaries by withholding security aid and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Democrats may also consider drafting articles of impeachment related to Trump's alleged obstruction of justice in former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. 

The report may be part of the presentation to the House Judiciary Committee on Monday, when staff for the Judiciary and Intelligence committees present their full findings. Last Wednesday, the Judiciary Committee heard from four legal scholars about the legal questions surrounding impeachment.  

Impeachment is not a punishment, the Committee wrote, but its purpose is instead "to save the Nation from misconduct that endangers democracy and the rule of law."

"High crimes and misdemeanors," the Constitution's bar for impeachment, the Committee added, referred mostly to "acts committed by public officials, using their power or privileges, that inflicted grave harm on our political order."

Such acts included treason, bribery, abuses of power, foreign entanglements, and corruption of the office. 

"A President who perverts his role as chief diplomat to serve private rather than public ends has unquestionably engaged in 'high Crimes and Misdemeanors'— especially if he invited, rather than opposed, foreign interference in our politics," the Committee wrote, a reference to the investigations of Trump's pressuring of the Ukrainian government to open investigations into his political rivals.

The report also addresses arguments against impeachment that have been raised by congressional Republicans. The Committee argues the impeachment inquiry has been fair to Trump, complied with past precedent, and allowed sufficient opportunities for Trump to participate. 

The White House announced Friday evening that Trump would not be sending a lawyer to Monday's impeachment hearing, slamming the process as a "charade."

The report directly responds to House Republicans' report on Trump's dealings with Ukraine, which had defended Trump's conduct by saying Trump had a genuine and “reasonable skepticism” of Ukraine because of past corruption and concerns about Hunter Biden. 

"The House is 'not required to exhibit a naiveté from which ordinary citizens are free,'" the committee writes.

"For example, if a President publicly states that he withheld funds from a foreign nation due to its failure to meet certain conditions, but the federal agencies responsible for monitoring those conditions certify that they were satisfied, the House may conclude that the President’s explanation is only a distraction from the truth," a likely reference to Trump's insistence the aid to Ukraine was withheld because of concerns about corruption.