House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is drafting a report the House Judiciary Committee would use to move articles of impeachment against President Trump, the California Democrat said.
“The President has accepted or enlisted foreign nationals to interfere in our upcoming elections, including the next one,” Schiff wrote to House Democrats Monday. “This is an urgent matter that cannot wait if we are to protect the nation’s security and the integrity of our elections.”
Schiff said the report would include material from six committees that have been investigating the president for months, “summarizing the evidence we have thus far.”
Schiff, 59, suggested in the memo that Trump, 73, is likely facing impeachment, although no final decision has been made.
“The evidence of wrongdoing and misconduct by the President that we have gathered to date is clear and hardly in dispute,” Schiff wrote to lawmakers. “What is left to us now is to decide whether this behavior is compatible with the office of the presidency and whether the constitutional process of impeachment is warranted.”
The report is expected to center on testimony provided over the past two months about Trump’s efforts to get Ukraine government officials to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. Schiff said he would deliver the report to the Judiciary Committee when lawmakers return the week of Dec. 2.
Schiff said Democrats will “catalog” Trump’s refusal to comply with House-issued subpoenas, “which will allow the committee to consider whether an article of impeachment based on obstruction of Congress is warranted along with an article or articles based on this underlying conduct or other presidential misconduct.”
Democrats are considering articles of impeachment based on their belief Trump abused his office by asking for Ukraine’s help investigating Trump and appearing to require that help in exchange for critical security aid.
Schiff’s memo appears to mark the end of the public hearing phase of the impeachment investigation, and it signals Democrats are prepared to move toward drafting and voting on articles of impeachment.
Schiff, in the memo, told lawmakers, “We are open to the possibility that further evidence will come to light,” including new witness testimony, but most of the officials Democrats want to interview have refused to comply with subpoenas and are challenging Democrats in court.
