Impeachment reality: Pelosi asks Democrats: ‘Are you ready?’

WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi posed a simple question to House Democrats behind closed doors Wednesday as the Judiciary Committee considered articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump in an initial hearing that erupted in sharp partisan exchanges.

“Are you ready?” she asked rank-and-file lawmakers.

The answer was a resounding yes.

The Democrats also gave a standing ovation to Chairman Adam Schiff, whose Intelligence Committee report cataloged potential grounds for impeachment, and they overwhelmingly indicated they want to continue to advance the inquiry on its current path.

The meeting was described by people familiar with it, who were unauthorized to discuss it by name and were granted anonymity.

Pelosi, once reluctant to engage in a strictly party-line impeachment proceeding, is now leading colleagues to a likely vote after a House investigation found that Trump seriously misused the power of his office to seek foreign interference in the U.S. election and then obstructed Congress in its efforts to investigate.

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, the House Judiciary Committee’s first impeachment hearing quickly burst into partisan infighting as Democrats charged that Trump must be removed from office for a trio of offences — abuse of power, bribery and obstruction — and Republicans angrily retorted there were no grounds for such drastic action.

Pelosi has said no decision has been made on whether there will be a House vote on impeaching Trump. But a vote by Christmas appears increasingly likely with the release of a 300-page report by Democrats on the Intelligence Committee that found “serious misconduct” by the president.

The Judiciary panel responsible for drafting articles of impeachment convened as Trump’s team was fanning out across Capitol Hill. Vice-President Mike Pence met behind closed doors with House Republicans, and Senate Republicans were to huddle with the White House counsel as GOP lawmakers stand with the president.

Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., gaveled open the hearing saying, “’The facts before us are undisputed.”

Nadler said Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s president last July wasn’t the first time Trump sought a foreign power to influence American elections after Russian interference in 2016.

“We cannot wait for the election to address the present crisis,” Nadler said. “The president has shown us his pattern of conduct. If we do not act to hold him in check, now, President Trump will almost certainly try again to solicit interference in the election for his personal political gain.”

Republicans protested the proceedings as unfair to the president, the dredging up of unfounded allegations as part of an effort to undo the 2016 election and remove Trump from office.

“You just don’t like the guy,” said Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the panel. He called the proceedings a “disgrace” and a “sham.”

Several Republicans immediately objected to the process, interjecting procedural questions and questioning rules.

The committee heard from legal experts, delving into the issue of whether Trump’s actions stemming from the July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s president rose to the constitutional level of “bribery” or “high crimes and misdemeanours” warranting impeachment. The report laid out evidence that the Democrats say shows Trump’s efforts to seek foreign intervention in the U.S. election and then obstruct the House’s investigation.

Trump told reporters in London, where he was attending a NATO meeting, that he doubted many people would watch the live hearing “because it’s going to be boring.”

Trump did phone in to the House GOP’s morning meeting with Pence to talk with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. The California Republican said impeachment didn’t come up. “The unity has been very positive,” he said.

New telephone call records released with the report deepen Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s known involvement in what House investigators called the “scheme” to use the president’s office for personal political gain by enlisting a foreign power, Ukraine, to investigate Democrats including Joe Biden, and intervene in the American election process.

Trump told reporters he really doesn’t know why Giuliani was calling the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, which was withholding $400 million in military aid to the ally confronting an aggressive Russia at its border.

“’You have to ask him,” Trump said. “Sounds like something that’s not so complicated. … No big deal.”

At the hearing, the three legal experts called by Democrats backed impeachment. Noah Feldman, a Harvard Law School professor, said he considered it clear that the president’s conduct met the definition of “high crimes and misdemeanours.” Pamela Karlan, a Stanford Law School professor and former Obama administration Justice Department official, said the president’s action constituted an especially serious abuse of power “because it undermines democracy itself.”

Republican witness Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said the Democrats were bringing a “slipshod impeachment” case against the president, but he didn’t excuse the president’s behaviour.

“It is not wrong because President Trump is right,” according to Turley. “A case for impeachment could be made, but it cannot be made on this record.”

The political risks are high for all parties as the House presses only the fourth presidential impeachment inquiry in U.S. history.

Based on two months of investigation sparked by a still-anonymous government whistleblower’s complaint, the Intelligence Committee’s Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report relies heavily on testimony from current and former U.S. officials who defied White House orders not to appear.

Trump “sought to undermine the integrity of the U.S. presidential election process, and endangered U.S. national security,” the committee report said. When Congress began investigating, it added, Trump obstructed the investigation like no other president in history.

Along with revelations from earlier testimony, the new phone records raised fresh questions about Giuliani’s interactions with the top Republican on the intelligence panel, Devin Nunes of California. Nunes declined to comment. Schiff said his panel would continue its probe.

Republicans defended the president in a 123-page rebuttal claiming Trump never intended to pressure Ukraine when he asked for a “favour” — investigations of Democrats and Biden and his son. They say the military aid the White House was withholding was not being used as leverage, as Democrats claim — and besides, the $400 million was ultimately released, although only after a congressional outcry.

Democrats once hoped to sway Republicans to consider Trump’s removal, but they are now facing an ever-hardening partisan split over the swift-moving proceedings that are dividing Congress and the country.

Possible grounds for impeachment are focused on whether Trump abused his office as he pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to open investigations into Trump’s political rivals. At the time, Trump was withholding $400 million in military aid, jeopardizing key support as Ukraine faces an aggressive Russia at its border.

While liberal Democrats are pushing the party to go further and incorporate the findings from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and other actions by Trump, more centrist and moderate Democrats prefer to stick with the Ukraine matter as a simpler narrative that Americans understand.

Democrats could begin drafting articles of impeachment against the president in a matter of days, with a Judiciary Committee vote next week. The full House could vote by Christmas. Then the matter would move to the Senate for a trial in 2020.

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Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Alan Fram, Andrew Taylor, Colleen Long, Eric Tucker and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.

Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick, The Associated Press