informational inquiry is justified into an abuse of power by the previous administration. but at president trump s requested information at investigation was justified then no impeachment charge against him is justified. it can t be an abuse of power by president trump to inquire about an abuse of power that so painfully obvious by vice president biden. in other words, any theory of impeachment on the facts has to collapse on itself and exonerating president donald j. trump and why they won t accept the amendment and why every single one of us looking at the facts obltdive facts objectively has an obligation to do it. friend said before the break at some point that ukrainians knew about the hold on the aid. but the fact is that senior ukrainian government officials did not know about the delay in
is any person above the law? that s what each member has to think about as they make this important decision. not trying to divert attention from the core facts. or try to make this important vote today about something other than it is. that s what we need to focus on. and i hope we will for the rest of thisd hearing. and at this point, i will yield to the gentle lady from texas. congresswoman escobar. thank you, mr. stanton. there is much reference, there has been much reference made to the transcript. and i useth air quotes because it s not an official transcript. i want to remind everyone that this was a document provided to us by the white house. with ellipses in the document and we don t know exactly what was stated because it is not an official document. much has been made, also, about this idea. the use of do us a favor. as though the united states of
republicans. before going back into the hearing, what will you be watching? i would like to actually see a debate. by that, i think people not just talking but also listening. that s at least the old-fashioned way i think about a debate. myya had a really important point. statutory bribery, the thing we keep talking about was codified in federal law 60 or 70 years after the constitution was ratified so whatever they mean by bribery in the constitution they certainly weren t referring to statutory bribery. impeachment doesn t require a crime. moreover, there wasn t a crime of bribery at least as we understand it today in the day the constitution was ratified. the republicaning saying it s nothing at all. how are democrats defining abuse of power here? you have to be careful not to make it sound look it s just i
all but inevitable at this point. the conversations with those folkses in particular i think are particularly revealing and we do have some news in that that house speaker nancy pelosi we are told by sources familiar has in mind a group of about a dozen or so, maybe 13 house members who would prosecute the case, present the case at a senate trial. we are told she wants a mix of gender, regional and racial diversity. the regional diversity issue i m told is particularly resonate with her because you see a poster there in the room republicans that accusing democrats of pushing forward with impeachment with what they call an elite coastal impeachment squad. in part, that s because the various chairs of the investigative committees come from either california or new york. so that right now is one of the best guarded secrets here on capitol hill is just who the speaker will settle on to present this case when it reaches the senate. can you tell me about the relationship between lawmakers
i think beyond probably just what they were doing on behalf of the president an enthat s a key point. as the attorney told the house intelligence committee. he was a member of the president s legal defense team, wokking on behalf of rudy giuliani to help the president of the united states officially. he said his lawyers said that in a letter to the house intelligence committee. and so, i think what if you want to look at where this is going to go, impeachment it seems will be wrapped up sometime next month. the southern district of new york is ongoing. he s been indicted. might be other charges that follow. his attorney has made it clear he has a story to tell, playing this silly game to tell it to congress it seems to get immunity to the charges go away. that s never going to happen. if he doesn t want a trial with what looks like overwhelming evidence of his guilt, he s going to have to talk to the southern district of new york and then talk about everything he did with rudy giulia