House Dems Issue Report on 'the Gravest Dangers'

Democrats zero in on their target: President Trump
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 7, 2019 2:30 PM CST
House Dems Issue Lengthy Report on 'Safety Valve'
President Donald Trump speaks during a small business roundtable in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Friday, Dec. 6, 2019, in Washington.   (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Previewing potential articles of impeachment, the House Democrats on Saturday issued a lengthy report drawing on the Founding Fathers to lay out the legal argument over the case against President Trump's actions toward Ukraine, the AP reports. The House Judiciary Committee findings don't make formal charges against Trump, which are being drafted ahead of votes, possibly by next week. Instead, the report refutes Trump's criticism of the proceedings, saying the Constitution created impeachment as a "safety valve" to remove a president before the next election. It refers to the writings of George Washington and others to link Trump's actions in his July phone call with Ukraine's president seeking political investigations of his rivals to the kind of behavior that would "horrify" the framers.

"Where the President uses his foreign affairs power in ways that betray the national interest for his own benefit, or harm national security for equally corrupt reasons, he is subject to impeachment by the House," the Democrats wrote. "Indeed, foreign interference in the American political system was among the gravest dangers feared by the Founders of our Nation and the Framers of our Constitution." Democrats are working through the weekend as articles are being drafted and committee members are preparing for a hearing Monday. Democrats say Trump abused his power in the July 25 phone call when he asked the Ukrainian president for a favor and engaged in bribery by withholding nearly $400 million in military aide that Ukraine depends on to counter Russian aggression.

(More Trump impeachment stories.)

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