Published 16:11 IST, December 4th 2019
US Democrats proposes forceful impeachment case against Trump
House Committee report makes forceful impeachment case against Trump. The Democrat led panel voted 13 to 9 to send the case to House Judiciary Committee.
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The House Intelligence Committee has presented a 300-page report against US President Donald Trump which makes a forceful face for impeachment claimed the Democrats at a closed-door hearing on December 3. The Democratic-led panel voted 13 to 9, along strict party lines as expected, to officially adopt and issue the report to the House Judiciary Committee, which is tasked with drafting articles of impeachment against the president. The report called an unparalleled effort of obstruction, including witness intimidation, to stifle the investigation into Trump's Ukraine scheme. The report has been immediately dismissed by the White House.
The final report on the Intelligence Committee's investigation read that the president placed his personal political interests above the national interests of the United States, sought to undermine the integrity of the US presidential election process, and endangered US national security. It further read that President Trump and his senior officials might not feel that it is wrong for them to use the power of the office of the president to pressure a foreign country to help the president's reelection campaign. However, the Founding Fathers prescribed a remedy for a chief executive who places his personal interests above those of the country i.e. impeachment.
Contents of the report
The report mapped out how Trump, his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and senior diplomats pressurized Ukraine's president into investigating Joe Biden. It also claimed that Trump pressured Zelensky to investigate a conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine and not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 US election. For both the demands, nearly $400 million US military aid was offered, it said. Moreover, the report claimed that Trump sought to obstruct the congressional probe, refusing to provide documents to investigators, preventing witnesses from appearing, and threatening some of those who did appear.
This report chronicles a scheme by the president of the United States to coerce an ally, Ukraine, that is at war with an adversary, Russia, into investigation his 2020 Presidential candidate, Biden, said, House Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.
On the other hand, Trump currently at the NATO summit again accused the Democrats of playing a political game. He reiterated his previous words by calling it a "hoax". Likewise, Trump's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham dismissed both the report and Schiff's investigation. She called it "a one-sided sham process" and said that there is no strong evidence while speaking to the Press. The report reads like the "ramblings of a basement blogger straining to prove something when there is evidence of nothing", she said to the Press.
(With inputs from agencies)
15:09 IST, December 4th 2019