Trump Impeachment: Republicans Attack Investigation Process

Stephen Castor, the minority counsel to both the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, Monday attempted to counter the case laid out by Democrats against President Trump in the second day of Judiciary Committee hearings into whether Trump committed impeachable offenses.

“The impeachment inquiry has returned no direct evidence that President Trump withheld a meeting or security assistance in order to pressure President Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Biden for the President’s political benefit,” Castor said as Republicans on the committee repeatedly tried to shut down the proceedings by bringing up questions on whether majority counsel Barry Burke, who testified at the outset, had the right to question witnesses.

“The record in the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry does not show that President Trump abused the power of his office or obstructed Congress,” Castor said.

But Daniel Goldman, the attorney for Democrats on the House Intelligence committee, said it’s clear Trump is a “clear and present danger” to fair elections and U.S. national security.

“President Trump’s persistent and continuing effort to coerce a foreign country to help him cheat to win an election is a clear and present danger to our free and fair elections and to our national security,” Goldman said.

“To impeach a president, who 63 million people voted for, over eight lines in a call transcript, is baloney,” Castro said, referring to the July 25 phone conversation between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky during which Trump asked Zelensky for a “favor.”

Castor said Trump's intentions were ambiguous and said it was unclear that Trump was trying to pressure Zelensky into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and a debunked conspiracy theory pushed by Moscow that Ukraine and not Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Castro testified both Russia and Ukraine interfered in the election.

“Contrary to Democrat allegations, President Trump was not asking for a ‘favor’ that would help with his reelection. He was asking for assistance in helping our country move forward from the divisiveness of the Russia collusion investigation,” Castor said.

He also said: “A systemic, coordinated Russian interference effort does not mean that some Ukranian officials did not work to oppose President Trump’s candidacy, did not make statements against President Trump during the election.”

U.S. intelligence agencies and former special counsel Robert Mueller both ruled out Ukraine as responsible for hacking into Democrats emails and orchestrating a disinformation campaign.

Castor’s testimony, however, ignored testimony from current and former Trump administration officials who found elements of the phone call objectionable and were convinced military aid to the former Soviet republic was contingent on Zelensky’s cooperation.

Republicans have objected that much of the testimony was hearsay, but Castor did mention that Trump ordered those with direct knowledge not to cooperate with the House investigation.

Ranking Republican Doug Collins, R-Ga., grilled Goldman on how House impeachment investigators conducted their inquiry.

Trump’s twitter account was relatively quiet during the hearing. The president retweeted comments from former CIA analyst Buck Sexton and some of his own tweets, criticizing the investigation, while senior aide Kellyanne Conway went on the offense.

"We remove presidents from office in extraordinary circumstances where the evidence is clear and is right in front of us as there was, frankly, with President Clinton." Kellyanne Conway