XPost: alt.gossip.celebrities, alt.politics.democrats.d, sac.general   
   XPost: alt.rush-limbaugh   
   From: goodbye-nancy@latimes.com   
      
   WASHINGTON — Previewing potential articles of impeachment, the   
   House Democrats on Saturday issued a lengthy report drawing on   
   history and the Founding Fathers to lay out the legal argument   
   over the case against President Donald Trump's actions toward   
   Ukraine.   
      
   The findings from the House Judiciary Committee do not spell out   
   the formal charges against the president, which are being   
   drafted ahead of votes, possibly as soon as next week. Instead,   
   the report refutes Trump's criticism of the impeachment   
   proceedings, arguing that the Constitution created impeachment   
   as a “safety valve” so Americans would not have to wait for the   
   next election to remove a president.   
      
   It refers to the writings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson   
   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 a July 25 phone   
   call when he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for a   
   favor and engaged in bribery by withholding nearly $400 million   
   in military aide that Ukraine depends on to counter Russian   
   aggression.   
      
   Speaker Nancy Pelosi says it's part of a troubling pattern of   
   behavior from Trump that benefits Russia and not the U.S.   
      
   Trump has insisted he did nothing wrong. “Witch Hunt!”the   
   president tweeted Saturday morning.   
      
   The articles of impeachment are likely to encompass two major   
   themes — abuse of office and obstruction — as Democrats strive   
   to reach the Constitution's bar of “treason, bribery or other   
   high crimes and misdemeanors.''   
      
   In releasing his report Saturday, Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-   
   N.Y., said the president's actions are the framers' “worst   
   nightmare."   
      
   “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,” Nadler said in a statement. “The safety and   
   security of our nation, our democracy, and future generations   
   hang in the balance if we do not address this misconduct. In   
   America, no one is above the law, not even the President.”   
      
   The report released Saturday is an update of similar reports   
   issued during the Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton impeachments   
   and lays out the justification for articles under consideration,   
   including abuse of power, bribery and obstruction.   
      
   It does not lay out the facts of the Ukraine case, but it hints   
   at potential articles of impeachment and explains the thinking   
   behind Democrats' decision to draft them. Without frequently   
   mentioning Trump, it alludes to his requests that Ukraine   
   investigate Democrats, a move he believed would benefit him   
   politically, by saying a president who "perverts his role as   
   chief diplomat to serve private rather than public ends" has   
   unquestionably engaged in the high crimes and misdemeanors laid   
   out in the Constitution. That is true "especially" if he invited   
   rather than opposed foreign interference, the report says.   
      
   The report examines treason, bribery, serious abuse of power,   
   betrayal of the national interest through foreign entanglements   
   and corruption of office and elections. Democrats have been   
   focused on an overall abuse of power article, with the   
   possibility of breaking out a separate, related article on   
   bribery. They are also expected to draft at least one article on   
   obstruction of Congress, or obstruction of justice.   
      
   In laying out the grounds for impeachable offenses, the report   
   directly refutes several of the president's claims in a section   
   called "fallacies about impeachment," including that the inquiry   
   is based on secondhand evidence, that a president can do what he   
   wants to do, and that Democrats' motives are corrupt.   
      
   "The President’s honesty in an impeachment inquiry, or his lack   
   thereof, can thus shed light on the underlying issue," the   
   report says.   
      
      
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