This archive report was first published on 8 December 2019.
House Judiciary Committee Report Offers Legal Rationale for Impeaching Trump ¶
Published on December 7, 2019, a 52-page report by the Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee argues that the framers of the Constitution intentionally provided a way to remove the occupant of the Oval Office for misconduct.
The report, titled 'Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment,' concludes that a president who perverts their role as chief diplomat to serve private rather than public ends has engaged in 'high crimes and misdemeanors.'
On Monday, the committee will formally receive the evidence against President Trump in a public hearing. Democratic and Republican lawyers for the House Intelligence Committee will testify and answer questions.
Lawyers for the Judiciary Committee will also testify at the hearing as the panel's 41 members begin a weeklong debate on whether to approve articles of impeachment.
Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and the chairman of the committee, has made no pretense about how he expects the debate to conclude.
“The Framers worst nightmare is what we are facing in this very moment,” he said on Twitter on Saturday as the report was released. “President Trump abused his power, betrayed our national security, and corrupted our elections, all for personal gain. The Constitution details only one remedy for this misconduct: impeachment.”
The report echoes a well-regarded 1974 document created by the same committee during the debate about whether to impeach President Richard M. Nixon.
Both reports primarily focus on how to define 'treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,' the offenses enumerated by the Constitution for impeachment.
But the current document is clearly meant to be a road map for Democrats, tracking closely with the allegations they have already made about President Trump's conduct.
“Impeachable bribery occurs when the president offers, solicits, or accepts something of personal value to influence his own official actions,” the report states.
The report also makes the case for impeaching a president who abuses the power of his office through actions that are legal but not motivated by the national interests.
At minimum, that duty requires presidents 'to exercise their power only when it is motivated in the public interest rather than in their private self-interest,’” the report argues.
The report's authors say the inquiry followed rules similar to previous impeachments and note that if he is impeached, President Trump will face a Senate trial, 'where he may be afforded an opportunity to present an evidentiary defense and test the strength of the House's case.'
The report also rejects the Republican argument that some evidence in the case should be ignored because it came from secondhand witnesses.
