Trump news: Angry president cuts short Nato summit trip and rages at Trudeau, as Congress launches next stage of impeachment after damning report
Three Constitutional scholars argued that the president committed 'high crimes and misdemeanours'
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Your support makes all the difference.A trio of scholars agreed that Donald Trump’s alleged abuses of power in his dealings with Ukraine amounted to "high crimes and misdemeanours" as grounds for impeachment, according to the rules outlined in the US Constitution.
Four constitutional scholars testified to the House Judiciary Committee on its first day of public impeachment hearings, which provided expert analysis to determine Constitutional grounds for removing the president from office, a process that will be determined formally by a majority vote of Congress.
Michael Gerhardt, Pamela Karlan and Noah Feldman vehemently agreed that the president had committed impeachable offences, including abuses of power, bribery, the hampering of Congress, and the obstruction of justice.
Ms Karlan invoked the image of America as a "shining city on a hill" that, if unable to investigate foreign influence into its own democracy, would cease to be that example.
Jonathan Turley — who was summoned by Republicans — said the inquiry is "one of the thinnest records ever to go forward on impeachment."
Ms Karlan also apologised — after right-wing outrage, including a tweet from First Lady Melania Trump — for a play on words in which she said that the president could name his son Barron but could not make himself a baron.
In a White House statement, press secretary Stephanie Grisham said that "the only thing the three liberal professors established at Chairman Nadler’s hearing was their political bias against the president."
The hearing followed the release of a damning 300-page report from the House Intelligence Committee, summarising its findings and detailing “overwhelming evidence of misconduct” by Mr Trump and his inner circle over Ukraine, with call records dragging Rudy Giuliani and implicating Congressman Devin Nunes further into the scandal.
Meanwhile, the president suffered fresh humiliation after world leaders Boris Johnson, Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron were filmed apparently laughing behind his back at a Nato reception at Buckingham Palace in London.
The US president slammed the Canadian prime minister as "two-faced" to reporters shortly after, while announcing the abrupt cancellation of a press conference later that day, saying he would instead be returning home.
Follow our coverage as it happened.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler just asked Michael Gerhardt "what happens to the system of checks and balances when he orders all witnesses not to testify?"
The constitutional expert responded: "When a president does that, separation of powers means nothing. The subpoenas that have been issued, of course, are lawful orders ... You comply with the law."
Here's more of the Democrat's staff attorney from The Independent's Andrew Feinberg:
"The staff attorney handling most of the Democrats’ 45-minute round of questioning is Norm Eisen. He’s a veteran Washington attorney who was the “ethics czar” in former President Barack Obama’s White House, and came to the Judiciary Committee from Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, where he was chairman of that watchdog organization’s board."
This hearing is not exactly going as Republicans may have hoped:
Stanford Professor Pamela Karlan is proving to be an incredibly effective witness in today's impeachment hearings.
"When Pres. Trump invited—indeed, demanded—foreign involvement in our upcoming election, he struck at the very heart of what makes this a 'republic'", she said. "That demand ... constituted an abuse of power."
Professor Pamela Karlan on Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine:
"If we look like we're asking other countries to interfere in our election, if we look we're asking our countries to engage in criminal investigations of our president's political opponents, then we're not doing our job of promoting our national interests."
The Independent's Andrew Feinberg has more on the Democratic staff attorney Norm Eisen:
"During a background briefing for reporters last night, a source working on the impeachment inquiry implied that Eisen is looking forward to questioning Turley on his Clinton-era statements in favor of impeachment. He has largely ignored him so far, but has 22 minutes to go in this round."
Professor Pam Karlan says "you have bribery here" if you believe Donald Trump withheld Ukraine aid while demanding political investigations into the Bidens.
Here is Doug Collins' apparent reaction to House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler's opening statement -
Pamela Karlan's full quote on bribery:
"If you conclude that [Trump] asked for the investigation of Vice President Biden and his son for political reasons, that is to aid his re-election, then yes, you have bribery here."
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