Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives laid out their strongest case for impeaching U.S. President Donald Trump in a highly anticipated report on Tuesday.From left, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Donald Trump.At the heart of the Democrats’ case for impeachment is a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which Trump asked Zelenskiy for a “favor.” He suggested that the Ukrainian leader order an investigation into Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company that had hired Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, as a highly paid board member. Trump also suggested Zelenskiy investigate a debunked conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.Trump made the demand at a time he had frozen nearly $400 million of military aid to Ukraine and the newly elected Zelenskiy coveted an Oval Office meeting with Trump to enhance his stature. The phone call led an unidentified member of the intelligence community to file a whistleblower complaint that Trump was “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 election.” The complaint prompted House Democrats in late September to announce a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump. The report said the scheme to get Ukraine to carry out political investigations extended well beyond the July 25 phone call. It involved a smear campaign by Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to oust Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who was not considered a team player. Working with two business associates and a trio of U.S. officials, Giuliani tried to force Trump’s demands for investigations on Ukrainian officials. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the University of Louisville McConnell Center’s Distinguished Speaker Series in Louisville, Kentucky, Dec. 2, 2019.“Our investigation determined that this telephone call was neither the start nor the end of President Trump’s efforts to bend U.S. foreign policy for his personal gain,” it said. “Rather, it was a dramatic crescendo within a months-long campaign driven by President Trump in which senior U.S. officials, including the Vice President (Mike Pence), the Secretary of State (Mike Pompeo), the Acting Chief of Staff (Mick Mulvaney), the Secretary of Energy (Rick Perry), and others were either knowledgeable of or active participants in an effort to extract from a foreign nation the personal political benefits sought by the President.”While congressional Democrats for months have accused the president of “abuse of power” in connection with pressuring Ukraine, the report conspicuously stopped short of leveling that charge. Instead, it accused Trump of “misconduct,” alleging that he conditioned military aid and a White House meeting for Zelenskiy on a public pledge by Ukraine to carry out the investigations of both Bidens.“In pressuring President Zelenskiy to carry out his demand, President Trump withheld a White House meeting desperately sought by the Ukrainian President, and critical U.S. military assistance to fight Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine,” the report said. “The President engaged in this course of conduct for the benefit of his own presidential reelection, to harm the election prospects of a political rival, and to influence our nation’s upcoming presidential election to his advantage.”The report cited Trump’s “unprecedented effort” to obstruct the congressional inquiry by refusing to produce “a single document” and attempting to prevent key administration officials from testifying or attempting to intimidate them. Yet other current and former officials, including U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, Acting Ambassador William Taylor, National Security Council aide Alexander Vindman and Yovanovitch testified about their knowledge of the Ukraine scheme.“These officials not only served their nation honorably, but they fulfilled their oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” the report stated.
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