Lawmakers returned from Thanksgiving break this week at a time when the impeachment inquiry enters a new stage. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff released a 300-page report to his committee on Tuesday morning setting forth the case for the impeachment of President Trump based upon the private and public testimony that occurred over the last two months. After a vote along party lines, the report was sent to the House Judiciary Committee, where Chairman Jerry Nadler will conduct a set of hearings and ultimately draft articles of impeachment for a vote by the full House. There have been conflicting reports on when the House will vote to send the impeachment to the Senate, but it will likely be before the holiday recess later this month.

On Monday, before the release of the official Intelligence Committee report, House Republicans released their own "prebuttal," a 123-page report laying out their defense of the President. The heart of the Republican defense is that President Trump had a genuine skepticism of Ukraine and Ukrainian corruption, which prompted him to withhold military aid until the country's new government was fully vetted. The Republican report also touched on the theory (widely debunked) that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election.

The official Intelligence Committee report, for its part, made the case that the President engaged in misconduct by conditioning a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and military aid to Ukraine on a public announcement by Zelensky of investigations beneficial to President Trump's reelection campaign, and that President Trump obstructed the House impeachment inquiry by instructing witnesses and agencies to ignore subpoenas for documents and testimony. The report set forth the findings of fact based on the impeachment-hearing testimonies. The fact findings concluded that President Trump used the powers of his office to directly ask the President of Ukraine to investigate (1) a Trump political opponent and (2) a widely debunked theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 election. The findings of fact also stated that President Trump acted in his own political interest, despite the claim that he was imposing US anti-corruption policies; and that when faced with the revelation of his actions, President Trump used the powers of his office to obstruct the investigation into the solicitation of foreign interference in order to conceal the misconduct from the public and House investigators.

On Wednesday, the Judiciary Committee held its first public hearing. Chairman Nadler had previously invited President Trump to send an attorney to participate in the hearing, setting a deadline of December 1 for the President's response. On Sunday, the White House informed Nadler that they would not be participating in the first hearing, despite a running complaint by the administration that the impeachment inquiry has been violating President Trump's due process. The White House did not, however, foreclose the possibility of its participating in additional Judiciary Committee hearings.

As for this week's hearing, four constitutional scholars testified, laying out the constitutional grounds for and against the impeachment of President Trump. The Democrats called three of the witnesses—Harvard law professor Noah Feldman, Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan and University of North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhardt—while the Republicans called George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley.

Not surprisingly, all three Democratic witnesses argued that President Trump committed impeachable offenses. Professor Feldman pointed to the President's abuse of office as the most glaring evidence. Professor Gerhardt warned that if the President is left unchecked, he will continue soliciting foreign inference to serve his personal interests. And Professor Karlan's testimony was marked by some contentious exchanges with several of the committee's top Republican members. Professor Turley, the sole Republican witness, made the argument that there is simply not enough evidence yet to impeach the President and that the House should slow the process in order to come to a definitive conclusion.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a press conference yesterday where she authorized Chairman Nadler to proceed with the drafting of impeachment articles. The Judiciary Committee announced yesterday that it would host an additional meeting on Monday, December 9, to allow for the presentation of the Intelligence Committee's findings, but will presumably begin drafting impeachment articles immediately. The Dentons Public Policy team will continue to send out updates accordingly.

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