Other important things that are going undone. Within this committees own jurisdiction we should address the Opioid Epidemic and could be working together to find solutions to the challenges on our southern border. Protecting americans from jobs stolen by Chinese Companies and enhancing Election Security to name a few things. Congress as a whole could be working on rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, providing additional tax relief to the nations middle class families and providing additional security to our people here at home and abroad. Instead here we are spinning our wheels once again on impeachment. What a waste. The American People deserve so much better. I yield back. Gentleman yields back. Thank you, mr. Chair. I take no pleasure in the fatha were here today. As a patriot who loves america,
it pain meese ths me the circum force us to undertake this solemn obligation. Nonetheless on the public evidence it appears President Trump pressured a Foreign Government to interfere in our elections investigating a perceived chief political opponent. Were here to uphold our oath and further understanding that the president s conduct is impeachable. Entirely appropriate we examine the nations history relating to this. Framers of the constitution legitimately feared for interference in our National Sovereignty and wanted to ensure a check and balance on the executive. We sit here as a duty to fulfill theyre constitution. Impeach a president for treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemean misdemeanor. High refers to both Crimes And Misdemeanors. Can you give a little summary of
what high Crimes And Misdemeanors are and how theyre distinct from what Professor Turley said they were. Yes, sir. They are actions of the president in office where he uses his office to advance his personal interesting, potentially for personal gain, potentially to corrupt the Electoral Process and potentially as well against the National Security interests of the United States. I would add, sir, that the word high modifies both Crimes And Misdemeanors. The framers world knew of both high crimes and highs did me meaners and i believe the definition posted earlier of misdemeanor was not the definition of high misdemeanor a specific term understood by the founding fathers. Its easy mistake to make but high misdemeanors their own category of abuses of office and those are the things that are impeachable. Thank you, professor. Professors feldman, gerhardt and
karlan, Abuse Of Power, betrayal of National Interest ares and corruption of elections. Is that right, professor karlan. Yes, it is. And professor feldman and professor gerhardt, do you agree. Yes, sir. Professor karlan you stated essence of impeachmentable the president s decision to sacrifice the National Interests for his own end. Do you agree with that, all of you . Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Based on the evidence youve seen, professors feldman, karlan and gerhardt, has President Trump sacrificed the countrys interests in favor of his own . Professor karlan . Yes, he has. Is there a particular piece of evidence that most illuminating that. What illuminates that most for me is the statement by ambassador sondland that he wanted simply the announcement of an investigation and several other people said exactly the same thing. Theres testimony by ambassador
volker to this extent as well. What he wanted, simply Public Information to damage joe biden. He didnt care whether end of the day joe biden was found guilty or exonerated. And professor feldman, do you agree or a difference . My emphasis is on the fact the president held up aid to an ally fighting a war in direct contravention of the unanimous recommendation of the National Security community. That to me seems to have placed his own interests in personal advantage ahead of the interests of the nation. And a bill passed by congress, bipartisan . Yes, sir. Professor gerhardt . I agree with what my colleagues have said and add im very concerneden a the president s obstruction of congress. Obstruction of this inquiry, refusal to comply with a number of subpoenas ordering many high level officials in the government not to comply with the subpoenas and in ordering the entire Executive Branch not to cooperate with congress. Its useful to remember the constitution says the house has
the sole power to impeach. The constitution only uses the word sole. Once with reference to the house in this area and once with reference to the senate with respect to Impeachment Trials. Sole means sole. Means only. This is your decision. Let me get Professor Turley into this. Professor turley, youre a selfdescribed, selfanointed defender of article 1 congress guy. But of you justify a position that says legally issued subpoenas by congress enforcing its powers dont have to be complied with. Seems in this circumstance youre an article 2 executive guy. And your Talking Ak The Johnson impeachment is not useful. Maladministration. This is a criminal act. Thank you, professors for helping us understand high Crimes And Misdemeanors. We the peoples representatives in the peoples house have a high responsibility charged with the sole power to uphold our constitution and defend other democracy and we sha do that. Gentlemans time expired. Mr. Gomez . Thank you. Im afraid this hearing is indicative of the indecency to which weve come when instead of the committee of jurisdiction bringing in facts witnesses to get to the bottom of what happened, and not even having time to review the report, which as Professor Turley indicated is wafer thin when compared to the 36 boxes of documents that were delivered to the last impeachment group, but then to start this hearing with the chairman of the committee saying that the facts are undisputed. The only thing that is disputed more than the facts in this case is the statement that the facts are undisputed. They are absolutely disputed, and the evidence is a bunch of
hearsay on hearsay that if anybody here had tried cases before of enough magnitude you would know you cant rely on hearsay on hearsay but we have experts who know better than the accumulated experience of the ages. So here we are and i would submit, we need some factual witnesses. We do not need to receive a report that we dont have a chance to read before this hearing. We need a chance to bring in actual fact witnesses, and there are a couple i can name that are critical to us getting to the bottom. They work for the National Security security council. Abigail grace, shawn misco worked with Vice President biden on different matters involving ukraine. Worked with brennan and mcmasters. They have absolutely critical
information about certain ukrainians involvement in our u. S. Election. Their relationships with the witnesses who went before the Intel Committee and others involved in these allegations make them the most critical witnesses in this entire investigation. And the records including their emails or text messages, the flash drives or computers have information that will bring this effort to remove the president to a screeching halt. So we have an article here from october 11, Gary Pickett Points Out that House Intelligence Committee chairman adam schiff recruited to former National Security aides who worked alongside the whistleblower at the nsc during the obama and trump administrations, Abigail Grace worked at the nsc until 2018, hired in february while shawn misco, nsc aide until 2017 join schiffs committee in
august. The same month the whistleblower submitted his complaint. And it goes on to point out that grace was hired to Help Schiffs Committee Investigate The Trump white house. That month trump Accused Schiff of stealing people who were working at the white house. And chairman schiff said, if the president s worried ak hour hires former administration maybe he should work on being a better employer. No. He should have fired everybody just like bill clinton did all the u. S. Attorneys on the same day. That would have saved us a lot of whats going on here. So, anyway, we need those two witnesses. Theyre critical, and then we also need someone who is a cia detailee to the ukraine nsc desk, State Department Voyeur Shows Italy implications in the last elections. He speaking arabic and russian,
reported directly to charles kupchan, a friend of the clintons aide, blumenthal, policy work for ukraine corruption. Close continuous contact with the fbi state ukrainian officials. A Collateral Duty to support Vice President biden and biden was obamas point man on ukraine. Associated with dnc operative ally chalupa who we also need. Met with her november 9, 2015 with ukrainian delegation, and theres all kinds of reasons we need these three witnesses, and i would ask pursuant to section 4 House Resolution 660, ask our chairman to, i mean our ranking member, to submit the requests for these three witnesses, because were not having a factual hearing until we have these people that are at the
bottom of every fact of this investigation. Gentlemans time thanks for bringing down the gavel hard. That was nice. Gentleman yields back. In johnson. Thank you, there chairman. The president has regularly and recent recently interfered in our elections. Professor turley says its an impulse by moments and suggests the house should pause. Professor karlan, do you agree with Professor Turley . No. If you conclude as i think the evidence to this point shows that the president is soliciting foreign involvement in our election you need to act now to prevent foreign interference in the next election like the one we had in the past. Thank you, professor karlan. In 30 seconds or less, why was the president conduct so egregious it merits drastic
remedy of impeachment. He invited the russians longtime adversaries into the process. The last time around. Because he has invited the ukrainians into the process and because he suggested he would like the chinese to come into the process as well. Thank you very much. One of the framers Of Our Constitution Ed Mcrandolph Who at one time was mayor of williamsburg, virginia, warned us that the executive will have great opportunities of abusing his power. Professor feldman, people like mayor randolph rebelled, because of the tyranny of a king. Wipe would tere the framers so l for a president to become so tyrannical and abusive and what did they do to protect against it . The framers believed strongly the people were the king. The people were sovereign meaning the president worked to are somebody. He worked for the people. They how thatofknew thknew a not be checked, supervised by his own party and by congress and be impeached would effectively be above the law and use his power to get reelected and why they created the impeachment remedy. Thank you. How the framers concerns about Abuse Of Power relate to President Trumps misconduct. On july 25th, President Trump said to president zelensky, i would like you to do us a favor, though. Professor feldman, when President Trump made use of the words favor, though, do you believe that the president was benignly asking for a favor, and how it the answer to that question relevant to whether the president abused his power . Its relevant, sir, because theres nothing wrong with someone asking for a favor in the interests of the United States of america. The problem is, for the president to use his office to solicit or demaund a fand a fav
personal benefit. Given the incentives the president created for ukraine to comply for his request the president was seeking to serve his own personal benefit and interest. Thats the definition of corruption under the constitution. Other witnesses have also testified that it was their impression that when President Trump said i would like you to do us a favor, though, that he was actually making a demand and not a request. Professor feldman, how does Lieutenant Colonel vindmans testimony that the president s statement was a demand because of the power disparity between the two countries relate back to our framers concerns about the president s Abuse Of Power . Lieutenant colonel vindmans observation states clearly you have to understand the president of the United States has so much more power than the president of ukraine. When the president uses the word favor the reality, hes
applying tremendous pressure. The pressure of the power of the United States. That relates to the constitutional abuse of office. If someone other than the president of the United States asks the president of ukraine to do a favor the president of ukraine could say no. When the president of the United States uses the office of the presidency to ask for a favor, theres simply no way for the president of ukraine to refuse. Thank you. We have also heard testimony the president withheld a white house meeting, and military aid, to further pressure ukraine to announce investigations of Vice President biden and the 2016 election. Professor karlan, is that why your testimony concluded that the president abused his power . I thought the president abused his power by asking for a criminal investigation of the United States citizen for political ends regardless of everything else. Thats just its not icing on the cake. You call an aggravating circumstance there was need here. All right. Thank you. A president holding an american ally over a barrel to extract personal favors is deeply troubling. This is not a impulse by moment. Its a great lake the glass moment and impeachment is the only appropriate remedy and with that i will yield back. Gentleman yields back. There jordan. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Before Speaker Pelosi announced the impeachment inquiry ten weeks ago september 24th, before the call between President Trump and president zelensky on july 25th, before the mueller hearing in front of this committee on july 24th, before all of that, 16 of them had already voted to move forward on impeachment. 16 democrats on the Judiciary Committee had already voted to move forward on impeachment yet today were talking whether the positions theyve already taken are constitutional . Seems a little backward to me. I mean, we cant get agreement. I think four deaths what . Four people voted for clinton and they cant agree. Yet today we talk about the constitution. Professor turley, youve been great today, but i think you were wrong on one thing. You said this is a fast impeachment. I would argue its not a fast impeachment. Its a predetermined impeachment. Predetermined impeachment done in the most unfair partisan fashion we have ever seen. No Subpoena Power for republicans. Deaf zi depositions done in secret in the bunker of the capitol, 17 people come in, no one in there except a handful of folks adam schiff alloweds. Chairman schiff prevented witnesses from testifying. Democrats denies witnesses we wanted in the open hearing that took place three weeks ago and of course democrats promiseded whistleblower would testify and then changed their mind. When they changed their mind, why . Because the whole world discovered adam schiffs staff had talked to the whistleblower
coordinated with the whistleblower. The whistleblower with no firsthand knowledge biased against the president who worked with joe biden whose lawyer in January Of 17 said the Impeachment Process starts then. Thats the unfair process weve been through. The reason its unfair, cut to the chase. The reason its been unfair is because the facts arent on their side. The facts are on the president s side. Four key facts have not changed will never change. The transcript, no quid pro quo in the transcript. Two guys on the call, President Trump and zelensky, no pressure, no quid pro quo. Ukrainians third been know aid was held up at time of the phone call, fourth, most important, ukrainians never promised never promised to start and never announced investigation at the time the aid was paused. Never once. What did happens in those 55 days the aid was paused . There were five key meetings between president zelensky and senior officials in our government. Five key meetings, at the call on july 25th. Very next day. July 26th, ambassador volker, taylor and sondland met with president zelensky in kyiv. Then ambassador bolton end of august meet with president zelensky