The House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday night approved its impeachment inquiry report against President Donald Trump on a party-line vote, which was expected.
The committee, chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), voted 13 to 9 on the “Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report.” The thirteen to approve are Democrats and the nine who voted against it are Republicans.
It comes after the Democrats on the committee drafted a 300-page report on allegations against Trump. It was written by Democratic staffers on the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight Committees.
“This report chronicles a scheme by the president of the United States to coerce an ally, Ukraine, that is at war with an adversary, Russia, into doing the president’s political dirty work,” Schiff said on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Trump told reporters that he would like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and Energy Secretary Rick Perry to testify should the impeachment trial reach the Senate, where it’s likely to be shot down.
Democrats claimed that the July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—where Trump asked his counterpart to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden’s dealings in the Eastern European county—were part of a quid pro quo effort. They have claimed Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine for the investigations, which Trump and Zelensky have denied.
The 300-page report was rejected by the White House.
“At the end of a one-sided sham process, Chairman Schiff and the Democrats utterly failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by President Trump,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement. “This report reflects nothing more than their frustrations. Chairman Schiff’s report reads like the ramblings of a basement blogger straining to prove something when there is evidence of nothing.”
Republicans drafted their own report, rejecting the Democratic majority’s assertions.
“As for the hearing scheduled for Dec. 4, we cannot fairly be expected to participate in a hearing while the witnesses are yet to be named and while it remains unclear whether the Judiciary Committee will afford the president a fair process through additional hearings,” Cipollone told the committee. “More importantly, an invitation to an academic discussion with law professors does not begin to provide the president with any semblance of a fair process. Accordingly, under the current circumstances, we do not intend to participate in your Wednesday hearing.”