(Bloomberg) — House Democrats leading the panels running the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump announced their next steps during a news conference Tuesday in Washington.
Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters, Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal and Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney took part, along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Here are the latest developments:
Trump to Address Charges in Senate, Aide Says (10:11 a.m.)
White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a statement, “The president will address these false charges in the Senate and expects to be fully exonerated, because he did nothing wrong.”
Grisham called the impeachment effort “a baseless and partisan attempt to undermine a sitting president” and added that House Democrats “have determined that they must impeach President Trump because they cannot legitimately defeat him at the ballot box.”
Mulvaney Says He Would Testify for Trump (9:39 a.m.)
Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said that he’d testify at impeachment proceedings if Trump wanted him to.
“Part of me really wants to,” Mulvaney said Tuesday at a Wall Street Journal event in Washington. “We’ll do whatever the president wants us to do.”
Trump has told Mulvaney not to testify.
Democrats Target Abuse of Power, Obstruction (9:10 a.m.)
House Democrats announced two articles of impeachment charging Trump with abuse of power and obstructing Congress’s efforts to investigate his dealings with Ukraine.
When Trump was caught, he “engaged in unprecedented, categorical and indiscriminate defiance” of Congress’s investigation, Nadler told reporters.
The Judiciary Committee will consider the articles later this week, Nadler said.
The committee leaders spoke a day after his panel concluded its second hearing into whether Trump used his office to pressure the newly elected Ukraine president to announce politically motivated investigations for Trump’s personal and political benefit.
Nadler said Trump’s actions toward Ukraine “compromised our national security and threatened the integrity of our elections.”
Schiff said that allowing Trump’s conduct to stand would leave future leaders free to be “as corrupt” as they want.
“The argument ‘why don’t you just wait’ amounts to this: Why don’t you just let him cheat in one more election,” Schiff said. “Why not let him have foreign help one more time.”
“The president’s oath of office appears to mean very little to him,” Schiff said, but he added that Congress “can show that our oath means something to us.”
Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement, “Americans don’t agree with this rank partisanship, but Democrats are putting on this political theater because they don’t have a viable candidate for 2020 and they know it.” — Billy House
House Democrats to Unveil Two Articles Today (8:16 a.m.)
House Democrats plan to unveil two articles of impeachment against President Trump on Tuesday — one on abuse of power and the other involving obstruction of Congress, a top Democrat said Tuesday.
An abuse of power count against Trump will include allegations he “betrayed his oath of office and endangered national security” and “is a clear and present danger to our elections in 2020,” Representative Katherine Clark, vice chairwoman of the Democratic caucus, told CNN.
She said there also will an obstruction of Congress article “because of all the barriers to getting to the truth that this White House and president have tried to put between the American people and the facts.”
Clark said Democratic lawmakers from swing districts have nothing to fear politically. “They are doing what’s right. They are following the truth. We’re not worried about the political ramifications. We’re worried about the future of our democracy.” — Elizabeth Wasserman
Catch Up on Impeachment Coverage
Key Events
Monday’s House Judiciary hearing focused on accusations that Trump abused his office in dealing with Ukraine and obstructed a congressional investigation into the matter, indicating they may be heading toward tightly drawn articles of impeachment.The House Intelligence Committee Democrats’ impeachment report is here.Gordon Sondland’s transcript is here and here; Kurt Volker’s transcript is here and here. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch’s transcript is here and here; the transcript of Michael McKinley, former senior adviser to the secretary of State, is here. The transcript of Holmes, a Foreign Service officer in Kyiv, is here.The transcript of William Taylor, the top U.S. envoy to Ukraine, is here and here. State Department official George Kent’s testimony is here and here. Testimony by Alexander Vindman can be found here, and the Hill transcript is here. Laura Cooper’s transcript is here; Christopher Anderson’s is here and Catherine Croft’s is here. Jennifer Williams’ transcript is here and Timothy Morrison’s is here. Philip Reeker transcript is here. Mark Sandy’s is here.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jordan Fabian in Washington at [email protected];Billy House in Washington at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at [email protected], Elizabeth Wasserman, Laurie Asséo
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