House Democrats announce 2 articles of impeachment against Trump
President Donald Trump. Photo by Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock.com.
House Democrats announced two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
One article accuses Trump of abuse of power, while the other accuses him of obstruction of Congress, report the Washington Post, the New York Times, USA Today, Vox and CNN.
The first article of impeachment stems from Trump’s request for Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. Democrats have contended that Trump applied pressure by delaying a meeting with Ukraine’s president and holding up money for security assistance.
“It is an impeachable offense for the president to exercise the powers of his public office to obtain an improper personal benefit while ignoring or injuring the national interest. That is exactly what President Trump did when he solicited and pressured Ukraine to interfere in our 2020 presidential election,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler.
A press release is here. The articles of impeachment are here.
An impeachment report released last week by the majority staff of the House Judiciary Committee said a president “who wields power to destroy opponents or manipulate elections is a president who rejects democracy itself.”
The second article of impeachment stems from Trump’s orders for witnesses to defy subpoenas for testimony and documents.
“A president who declares himself above accountability, above the American people and above Congress’ power of impeachment—which is meant to protect against threats to our democratic institutions—is a president who sees himself as above the law,” Nadler said. “We must be clear: No one, not even the president, is above the law.”
The articles of impeachment do not include a separate obstruction allegation for alleged attempts by Trump to obstruct former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election.
The House Judiciary Committee could vote on the articles by Thursday, sending them to the House of Representatives for a vote next week.
Story updated at 10:40 a.m. to add link to the articles of impeachment.
