SALT LAKE CITY — House Democrats introduced two articles of impeachment on Tuesday charging President Donald Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The House Judiciary Committee meets late Wednesday to debate the impeachment resolution and is expected to approve it in a party-line vote in coming days, moving an impeachment vote to the full House before Christmas. Trump would be the third president to be impeached in the nation’s history.
The articles center on Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine, which should be a relief to moderate House Democrats, like Utah’s Ben McAdams, who urged leaders to limit the scope of the impeachment.
McAdams, among the most vulnerable freshman Democrats seeking reelection next year, did not comment on that aspect of the charges Tuesday, but told the Deseret News last week that articles of impeachment should not cover allegations of Trump obstructing justice into an investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“Let the voters decide that,” he said. “I am concerned about actions relating to the 2020 election and allegations of the president inviting foreign interference into the 2020 election.”
The nine-page impeachment resolution does link the Ukraine inquiry to the special counsel probe into Russian election tampering in two separate lines. It says the abuse of power was consistent with Trump’s “previous invitations of foreign interference in United States elections” while the obstruction charge was consistent with his efforts to undermine U.S. government “investigations into foreign interference.”
The impeachment inquiry launched in September has focused on allegations that Trump leveraged a White House visit and $391 million in military aid seeking investigations by Ukraine that would have benefited him politically.
“Our president holds the ultimate public trust. When he betrays that trust and puts himself before country, he endangers the Constitution, he endangers our democracy and he endangers our national security,” Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in announcing the charges. “The framers of the Constitution prescribed a clear remedy for presidents who so violate their oath of office. That is the power of impeachment.”
Flanked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and chairmen of five key House committees, Nadler said the articles charge Trump with committing “high crimes and misdemeanors” — two standards identified in the Constitution’s provision on impeachment of a president and federal officials.
“It just erodes the foundation of the republic. Our founding fathers knew that that was possible. That’s why they said, ‘Please settle this at the ballot box. Don’t have the opposing party constantly threatening the president with impeachment.’” — Rep. Chris Stewart on KSL radio about the impeachment efforts
The latest development in the swiftly moving impeachment inquiry marks the fourth time in history that the Judiciary Committee will be voting on articles of impeachment and the third time the House will have voted on impeachment.
Trump called the process “sheer Political Madness” in a tweet early Tuesday. Following the announcement he tweeted his common criticism of investigations into his conduct: “WITCH HUNT!”
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said the announcement “does not hurt the president; it hurts the American people, who expect their elected officials to work on their behalf to strengthen our nation. The president will address these false charges in the Senate and expects to be fully exonerated, because he did nothing wrong.”
If the House votes to impeach, the Senate must hold a trial to convict the president and remove him from office. That has never happened and it’s unlikely to occur for Trump in the GOP-controlled chamber that has denounced the impeachment as unfair, politically motivated and a “sham.”
Neither of Utah’s senators, Republicans Mike Lee and Mitt Romney, commented on today’s announcement.
“About six weeks ago Nancy had the votes for impeachment, but no evidence. Today, she still has the votes for impeachment and still no evidence,” said Utah Republican Rep. Rob Bishop on Tuesday.
Pelosi said she would let House lawmakers vote their conscience, according to The Associated Press.
“On an issue like this, we don’t count the votes. People will just make their voices known on it,” Pelosi said at The Wall Street Journal CEO Council. “I haven’t counted votes, nor will I.”
The decision to proceed with impeachment does pose political risks for Democrats, particularly those who represent conservative districts that voted for Trump in 2016. McAdams is among that group, who were critical in Democrats winning control of the House last year and are targeted by Republicans to win back those seats in 2020.
America First Policies, a super PAC, said it will begin a second round of its $2 million “End the Witch Hunt” television ad campaign against the impeachment vote, targeting McAdams and 26 other Democrats.
“House Democrats proved this morning that they have no respect for the voters they represent and are willing to override the will of the American people for their own political gain. Ben McAdams must decide whether he stands with his constituents or with Nancy Pelosi and her partisan power play,” said Samantha Zager, a spokeswoman for the Trump reelection campaign.
In his statement Tuesday, McAdams said he takes the constitutional duty of congressional oversight seriously and will review the evidence and documents before his vote. “For now, I’m working on pressing issues such as the cost of prescription drugs and implementation of the trade agreement that is so important to Utah’s small businesses — those priorities continue to be my focus.”
Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, released a video explaining why he will vote against the articles of impeachment.
“My decision should not be inferred to mean that I’m happy with all of the President’s actions — but that is not the vote at hand. I’m being asked to help remove a duly elected president and I do not feel that his actions have met that high standard,” he said.
“About six weeks ago Nancy had the votes for impeachment, but no evidence. Today, she still has the votes for impeachment and still no evidence.” — Rep. Rob Bishop on Tuesday.
Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee that led the impeachment inquiry, said the articles of impeachment lower “the threshold to where every president in the future is going to be impeached.
“It just erodes the foundation of the republic,” he told KSL radio. “Our founding fathers knew that that was possible. That’s why they said, ‘Please settle this at the ballot box. Don’t have the opposing party constantly threatening the president with impeachment.’”
The Judiciary Committee held its last public impeachment hearing Monday, when attorneys representing House Democrats and Republicans presented their final arguments for and against introducing articles of impeachment.
The inquiry centered on a whistleblower complaint about a phone call between Trump and newly elected Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In their conversation, Trump asked Zelenskiy for “a favor” — to open investigations into a theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election and into political rival Joe Biden, whose son served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company when Biden was vice president.
Trump and his Republican supporters don’t dispute what was said in the phone call, but they contend the president didn’t break the law because the military aid was released, no investigations were conducted and Zelenskiy said he felt no pressure from Trump.
Democrats said Trump’s push to have Ukraine investigate Biden while withholding U.S. military aid ran counter to U.S. policy and benefited Russia as well as himself and is the basis for the abuse of power charge.
“President Trump’s persistent and continuing effort to coerce a foreign country to help him cheat to win an election is a clear and present danger to our free and fair elections and to our national security,” said Dan Goldman, the director of investigations for the House Intelligence Committee, presenting the finding of the panel’s 300-page report of the inquiry.
Republicans rejected not just Goldman’s conclusion of the Ukraine matter; they also questioned his very appearance before the Judiciary panel. In a series of heated exchanges, they said Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, should appear rather than sending his lawyer.
Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the committee, said Democrats are racing to jam impeachment through on a “clock and a calendar” ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
“They can’t get over the fact that Donald Trump is the president of the United States, and they don’t have a candidate that can beat him,” Collins said.
“For now, I’m working on pressing issues such as the cost of prescription drugs and implementation of the trade agreement that is so important to Utah’s small businesses — those priorities continue to be my focus.” — Rep. Ben McAdams
At Tuesday’s announcement, Schiff acknowledged next year’s election does create a pressing deadline, but he said the issue is protecting the integrity of the election, not preventing Republicans from keeping the White House. He explained that waiting for the courts to compel White House witnesses to testify and turn over requested documents could take more than a year.
The obstruction of justice charge relates to Trump defying House requests and subpoenas related to the Ukraine investigation. The White House has declined to participate in the Judiciary Committee hearings.
Nadler and Schiff said the alleged obstruction and abuse of power reveal a pattern that goes back to the Russian interference in the 2016 election and Trump’s efforts to thwart special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into that interference.
“The argument ‘why don’t you just wait’ amounts to this: Why don’t you just let him cheat in one more election,” Schiff said. “Why not just let him have foreign help just one more time.”
Contributing: Associated Press