House Intelligence Committee Approves Damning Report on Trump-Ukraine Scheme

The House Intelligence Committee in a party-line vote Tuesday evening approved a report on its investigation into President Donald Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine, setting up potential articles of impeachment in the House Judiciary Committee.

The president “sought to undermine the integrity of the U.S. presidential election process, and endangered U.S. national security,” according to the report, which does not recommend any specific articles of impeachment but suggests that charges of obstruction of justice are likely.

The report outlines how Trump sought an investigation by Ukraine into former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in exchange for the release of military aide as well as an Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. This, it found, “was the act of a president who viewed himself as unaccountable and determined to use his vast official powers to secure his reelection.”

Trump also directed agencies and officials to not cooperate with lawful subpoenas issued by Congress during its investigation into this abuse of power, the report explains.

The report includes several previously unreported details, among them call records showing frequent communication between Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, the White House, the Office of Management and Budget, and Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee who did not recuse himself prior to last month’s witness testimonies.

The report also stresses the need to move forward quickly without hearing from high-level current and former officials in the administration who could bolster the argument for impeachment. “Given the proximate threat of further presidential attempts to solicit foreign interference in our next election, we cannot wait to make a referral until our efforts to obtain additional testimony and documents wind their way through the courts,” the report warns.

Republicans on Monday released their own report defending the president, claiming his actions were not only unworthy of impeachment but not improper at all.

The report now goes to the Judiciary Committee, which on Wednesday will hear from legal scholars on the historical precedent of impeachment.

In a letter to Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), White House counsel Pat Cipollone announced the White House would not be participating in tomorrow’s hearing, calling the impeachment process as a whole a “baseless and highly partisan inquiry.”