Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) moved on Thursday to strike article one from the impeachment articles introduced against President Donald Trump this week.
Article one accuses Trump of abusing the office of the presidency, including “using his powers of his high office” to “solicit the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the” 2020 U.S. election.
“This amendment strikes article one because article one ignores the truth,” Jordan said during a House Judiciary Committee hearing to markup the resolution containing the articles. “Four facts, five meetings. We’ve talked about it for five months. There have been four facts that have not changed, will never change, and we’ve known it since Sept. 25 when the call transcript was released.”
“The call transcript shows no quid pro quo. What’s interesting is the day the transcript came out, even Chairman Nadler said there was no quid pro quo. We know second that the two individuals on the call—President Zelensky, President Donald Trump—have said no pushing and linking between money and an announcement of an investigation.”
Jordan noted that there was no announcement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Ukraine was launching an investigation into former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
He also said that there were five meetings held between U.S. officials and Zelensky and in none of them was the matter of aid to Ukraine broached.
“Article one in this resolution ignores the truth, ignores the facts, ignores what happened and what has been laid out for the American people over the last three weeks. So I hope that this committee will come to its senses,” Jordan said.
The situation revolves around Trump’s July phone call with Zelensky, during which he asked his counterpart to “look into” allegations against the Bidens. Trump noted that Joe Biden stated publicly that he threatened in 2016 to withhold $1 billion in aid unless then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ousted the country’s top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin.
Shokin was probing Burisma, Hunter Biden’s employer, and Shokin’s replacement closed the probe.
Democrats say the request was improper because Biden is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Trump says it was his duty to investigate corruption in a country that was receiving U.S. aid.
Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) took issue with the amendment Jordan introduced, asserting that Trump “hired Rudy Giuliani to go to Ukraine and lead this scheme to smear Vice President Biden.”
He said that impeachment witnesses such as National Security Council official Alexander Vindman provided “direct evidence” of Trump abusing his office and cited Trump’s public comments in early October, when Trump said that both Ukraine and China should investigate the Bidens.
From The Epoch Times
