3 of 4 law experts at U.S. House panel inquiry call Trump's actions impeachable
Opinions split on party lines.
Blade News Services
Wed, 04 Dec 2019 20:10:02 GMT
link -- with images
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s attempts to prod Ukraine to pursue investigations that could benefit him politically represent impeachable offenses, three of four constitutional law experts testified to Congress on Wednesday.
At a House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing, three law professors chosen by Democrats made clear that they believed Mr. Trump’s actions constituted impeachable offenses.
A law professor selected by Republicans disagreed, saying the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry was “slipshod” and “rushed” and lacked testimony from people with direct knowledge of the relevant events, adding that current allegations do not show the President committed “a clear criminal act.”
Republican lawmakers repeatedly tried to interrupt the hearing by raising objections and points of order.
The impeachment inquiry, launched in September, focuses on Mr. Trump’s request on Ukraine to conduct investigations that could harm Democratic political rival Joe Biden.
The inquiry’s focus is a July 25 phone call in which Mr. Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to open an investigation into Mr. Biden and his son Hunter Biden and into a theory promoted by Mr. Trump’s allies that Ukraine, not Russia, meddled in the 2016 U.S. election.
Hunter Biden had joined the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma while his father was U.S. vice president. Mr. Trump has accused the Bidens of possible corruption. They have denied wrongdoing.
The hearing was the committee’s first to examine whether the President’s actions qualify as “high crimes and misdemeanors” punishable by impeachment under the U.S. Constitution.
Vocal Trump defender Jim Jordan (R., Urbana) called the process a “predetermined impeachment done in the most unfair partisan fashion we have ever seen.” He criticized Democrats who control the House of Representatives for denying Republicans the witnesses they sought, including the whistle-blower whose complaint triggered the impeachment inquiry.
“The facts are on the President’s side,” Mr. Jordan declared, asserting that a transcript of the call did not show a “quid pro quo” when Mr. Trump asked the Ukrainian president to do him a “favor” and investigate the family of former Vice President Joe Biden.
Mr. Jordan said Ukraine didn’t know Mr. Trump was holding up promised military aid at the time of the phone call, noting the President released the aid even though Ukraine didn’t do the investigation he requested.
Mr. Trump has denied wrongdoing.
In London for a NATO meeting, Mr. Trump called a report by House Democrats released on Tuesday that laid out possible grounds for impeachment a “joke” and appeared to question the patriotism of the Democrats, asking, “Do they in fact love our country?”
Harvard University law professor Noah Feldman, called by the Democrats, testified that Mr. Trump’s conduct embodies the concern expressed by the Constitution’s 18th century authors “that a sitting president would corruptly abuse the powers of office to distort the outcome of a presidential election in his favor.”
Stanford University law school professor Pamela Karlan said Mr. Trump abused his power by demanding foreign involvement in a U.S. election, adding that his actions “struck at the very heart of what makes this country the republic to which we pledge allegiance.”
George Washington University Law School Professor Jonathan Turley — the only witness chosen by the Republicans — though he said he voted against Mr. Trump in 2016 — disagreed that the President’s actions constituted bribery and said the allegations do not adequately support the Democrats’ claims.
“I am concerned about lowering impeachment standards to fit a paucity of evidence and an abundance of anger,” Mr. Turley told the committee. “If the House proceeds solely on the Ukrainian allegations, this impeachment would stand out among modern impeachments as the shortest proceeding, with the thinnest evidentiary record, and the narrowest grounds ever used to impeach a president. That does not bode well for future presidents who are working in a country often sharply and, at times, bitterly divided.”
University of North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhardt appeared to criticize Republicans for “leaving unchecked a president’s assaults on our Constitution.”
Republicans complained that the inquiry lacked testimony from people with direct knowledge of the events. Mr. Trump has instructed current and former members of his administration not to testify or produce documents, leading senior officials such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to defy House subpoenas.
No president has ever been removed from office through impeachment, though Republican Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 after the House began the impeachment process in the Watergate corruption scandal. Two other presidents were impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate.