House Judiciary Democrats were putting in another Saturday session to begin drafting article of impeachment against Donald Trump, articles that we could see presented Monday by the committee and could see a full House vote in a matter of days.
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives met on Saturday to prepare for what could be the final week of their months-old impeachment inquiry that has imperiled Donald Trump’s presidency.
After emerging from an all-day closed door meeting, House Judiciary Committee Democratic lawmakers said they were still in the process of drafting formal charges, known as articles of impeachment, that the panel could recommend for a full House vote as early as Thursday.
Representative Jamie Raskin told reporters on Saturday evening the committee had spent the day digesting information they received from the House Intelligence Committee and constitutional law scholars who testified before Congress on Wednesday. “So now we are in the process of putting the law and the facts together to begin to think about the next step,” he said.
The lawmakers released a 55-page report on Saturday morning outlining what they see as the constitutional grounds on which articles of impeachment could be built.
In releasing the report, the panel’s Democratic chairman, Jerrold Nadler, said impeachment was the only way to hold the Republican president to account.
“President Trump abused his power, betrayed our national security, and corrupted our elections, all for personal gain,” Nadler said in a statement. “The Constitution details only one remedy for this misconduct: impeachment.”
“Now we have the task of focusing on what the exact articles might be,” said Eric Swalwell, another Democratic lawmaker in the House Judiciary Committee, on his way out of Saturday’s meeting.
The committee will hold a public hearing on Monday to consider evidence gathered in the inquiry.
House Republicans of course are screaming bloody murder.
Republicans have called for a full day of proceedings to examine their own evidence, including a 110-page report saying the inquiry had found no evidence of an impeachable offense.
On Friday, the White House told Nadler it would not take part in the panel’s hearings and condemned the inquiry as “completely baseless.” Nadler, in turn, expressed his disappointment: “The American people deserve answers from President Trump.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, directed the committee to draw up the charges on Thursday after weeks of investigation into Trump’s request that Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to face the president in the 2020 U.S. election.
The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that Pelosi has the votes for the articles. It's not going to be a unanimous vote by Democrats, and zero Republicans will vote for them because they're all cowards, but she absolutely has the votes to pass them.
It's extremely likely by this time next week, Donald Trump will have been impeached and will be awaiting a Senate trial. Unfortunately, that means Mitch McConnell can run a Senate trial however he wants, even if Chief Justice Roberts will be presiding.
That won't happen until January though, so we'll wee.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment