Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Impeachment: Trump is first US president to solicit favours from foreign government, inquiry hears

Legal scholars testify whether president’s actions amount to ‘high crimes’

Andrew Buncombe
Seattle
Wednesday 04 December 2019 11:39 GMT
Comments
Impeachment: Trump is first US president to solicit favours from foreign government inquiry hears

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Donald Trump is the first US president to have apparently sought personal favours from a foreign nation, the impeachment inquiry has been told.

Jerry Nadler, the Democratic chair of the House Judiciary Committee, opened proceedings in the latest phase of the impeachment probe, by claiming Mr Trump had acted in a way that was unprecedented.

“The facts before are us are undisputed. He did everything in his power to prevent the American people from learning about his conduct,” he said.

“But never before, in the history of the republic, have we been forced to consider the conduct of a president who appears to have solicited personal, political favours from a foreign government.”

He added: “Never before has a president engaged in a course of conduct that included all of the acts that most concerned the framers.”

Mr Nadler acknowledged an election was less than 12 months away.

But he the nation could not wait for the election to address the present crisis.

“The integrity of that election the one of the very things at stake,” he added.

Rudy Giuliani appears to threaten Donald Trump on national television that he has 'insurance' in case he tries to throw him under the bus

The senior Republican on the committee, Doug Collins, claimed that Democrats were pursuing a rapid impeachment vote not because of concerns about the integrity of the election but because they are worried about the election’s outcome

“The chairman said it just a second ago — because we’re scared of the elections next year. We’re scared of the elections — we’ll lose again. So we’ve got to do this now,” Mr Collins said. “The clock and the calendar are what’s driving impeachment, not the facts.”

The remarks came before four legal scholars who testified before the committee.

Three of the scholars called by Democrats said the evidence relating to Mr Trump’s July 25 call with the leader of Ukraine amounted to impeachable offences.

Meanwhile, a law professor called by Republicans, said the impeachment inquiry lacked testimony from people with direct knowledge of the events.

The scholar said the evidence did not show that Mr Trump had committed “a clear criminal act”, according to written opening remarks prepared for the committee.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in