House Announces Monday Hearing to Hear Evidence on Trump Impeachment

Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 8, 2019. Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

The House Judiciary Committee announced it will hold a hearing to receive presentations of evidence from investigators as Democrats move forward with drafting articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.

The hearing was set for Monday, Dec. 9, and is titled, “The Impeachment Inquiry into President Donald J. Trump: Presentations from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and House Judiciary Committee,” according to the committee.

Other details about the hearing were not provided by the committee chaired by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.).

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) formally announced on Thursday that the House would draft articles of impeachment.

Constitutional scholars (L-R) Noah Feldman of Harvard University, Pamela Karlan of Stanford University, Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina, and Jonathan Turley of George Washington University are sworn in prior to testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 4, 2019. Alex Wong/Getty Images

The speaker asserted Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—where the president suggested his counterpart should look into allegations of corruption against former Vice President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden—was an abuse of power that undermined national security. A report on a whistleblower complaint to the intelligence community about the call sparked Democrats to move on an impeachment inquiry.

Trump, on Twitter, said he would like to have an impeachment trial in the Senate, and he said House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and the Bidens would testify.

“The Do Nothing Democrats had a historically bad day yesterday in the House. They have no Impeachment case and are demeaning our Country. But nothing matters to them, they have gone crazy. Therefore I say, if you are going to impeach me, do it now, fast,” he wrote.

Trump and Zelenksy have denied allegations of a quid pro quo pressure campaign to investigate the Bidens in exchange for military aid.

Hunter Biden previously sat on the board of Ukrainian gas firm Burisma Holdings, the founder of which has been accused of corruption, while his father was the point man in Kyiv. The older Biden also boasted in a 2018 video that he was able to get former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin fired—as he was investigating Burisma—although Obama administration officials have said Shokin was corrupt. Both Bidens have also denied allegations of corruption.

At Wednesday’s hearing with constitutional experts, Democrats suggested they are eyeing possible articles of impeachment. Meanwhile, the three Democratic-selected law professors asserted that Trump committed an impeachable offense while the lone Republican-selected expert said Democrats are moving too quickly and have no evidence.