Impeachments hearings are heating up as more and more people are being called on by the Democrats in Congress to testify. The impeachment inquiry has been going on for over three months, with the inquiry being launched on Sept. 24, 2019. President Donald Trump is faced with the impeachment inquiry due to evidence revealing that President Trump pressured Ukraine to help him in the 2020 election. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced the inquiry after evidence was brought forth about the President and Ukraine.
As of Dec. 4, 2019, the impeachment inquiry moved to its first hearing by House Judiciary Committee. The House Judiciary Committee is a committee in the House of Representatives that is charged with overseeing the administration of justice in the federal courts, federal law enforcement entities and administrative agencies.
The Washington Post’s live updates of the inquiry hearings stated Dec. 4, “three constitutional scholars summoned by Democrats are testifying Wednesday that President Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine rises to the level of impeachment.” The Washington Post also points out the main case that the Democratic party is following in the impeachment inquiry. “At the heart of the Democrats’ case is the allegation that Trump tried to leverage a White House meeting and military aid, sought by Ukraine in the face of Russian military aggression, to pressure President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, as well as an unfounded theory that Kyiv conspired with Democrats to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.”
The New York Times reported on the same day that the House Intelligence Committee released a report that “was a sweeping indictment of the president’s behavior, concluding that he sought to undermine American democracy and endangered national security, then worked to conceal his actions from Congress.” The 300-page report released by Democrats pushes the impeachment inquiry into its next phase, which would be the House Judiciary Committee.
The House Judiciary Committee started off their first hearing on Wednesday, Dec. 4 at 10 a.m. with looking into the constitutional grounds for impeachment. This included what constituted as bribery, high crimes and misdemeanors. Witnesses at the hearing were Noah Feldman, a Harvard law professor; Pamela Karlan, a Stanford law professor; Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina law professor; and Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor. If the House Judiciary Committee determine the articles of impeachment, then the inquiry will move to a full House vote. If the House passes it, a trial will be held in the Senate.
Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley was the only expert called by the Republican party to testify before the Judiciary Committee, while the other three experts, Pamela Karla, Michael Gerhardt, and Noah Feldman, were all called by the Democratic party. Turley stated in the hearing that it wasn’t clear if the president committed bribery. Witnesses called by the Democrats stated the opposite of Turley saying that the President’s dealings with Ukraine do constitute bribery. Michael Gerhardt stated, “If what we’re talking about is not impeachable, then nothing is impeachable.” Both parties, Republican and Democrat, are revving up to prove or disprove the articles of impeachment found in the report released by Democrats, which is now in the hands of the Judiciary Committee, after months of public and private hearings conducted by the House of Representatives.
Sites used:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/impeachment-hearings-live-updates/2019/12/04/b7cc7b4e-1682-11ea-a659-7d69641c6ff7_story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/us/politics/impeachment-trump-intelligence-committee.html https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/live-blog/impeachment-hearing-live-updates-judiciary-committee-n1095001 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/trump-impeachment-hearings-updates-judiciary-panel-takes-191204133017817.html