Impeachment reaches decision stage as Dems review evidence

Bloomberg

House Democrats are starting to compress weeks of depositions, documents and testimony into a report almost certain to result in articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, as the White House wages a campaign to discredit the investigation.
Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff won’t rule out more witnesses or other avenues of investigation beyond a central focus: whether Trump tried to use his office to force Ukraine into announcing a politically motivated probe.
“The investigation isn’t going to end,” Schiff said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Yet he acknowledged that “there is a sense of urgency” to quickly draft a report for the Judiciary Committee — which would begin any formal impeachment — so that the whole process can be wrapped up before 2020 campaigns begin in earnest.
Yet a court case and a continued steady drip of other documents and emails that have emerged over the past week may make it difficult for Schiff and Democrats to meet a goal of sending an impeachment case to the Senate for trail at the start of the new year.
The two weeks of public hearings provided new evidence linking Trump and senior administration officials to investigations of Joe Biden and the 2016 election they pushed Ukrainian leaders to announce in exchange for a White House meeting and security assistance.
The 12 career diplomats, civil servants and political appointees who testified also detailed the back-channel diplomacy led by Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, which undermined long-held US foreign policy objectives.
Testimony and documents unearthed so far could be the foundation of at least three articles of impeachment, including bribery, abuse of power, and obstruction of Congress, according to officials familiar with Intelligence Committee plans. Other potential other articles, such as possible witness tampering, have not been ruled out.

Republicans Firm
So far the inquiry hasn’t shaken Trump’s solid support from Republican lawmakers, or caused a shift in public sentiment for impeaching the president.
“There was no direct evidence of pressure on the Ukrainian government to do a certain act in order for the aid to go forward,” Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi said on NBC. “I think the American people are moving away from the Democratic position on this.”
A court ruling expected on Monday could set the precedent for whether additional Trump administration officials will be required to comply with congressional subpoenas. Former White House Counsel Don McGahn asked a federal judge to decide whether he must answer questions from the House Judiciary Committee under a subpoena that predates the impeachment inquiry.
Several White House officials, including former National Security Advisor John Bolton, said they would answer Congress’s questions if ordered by the courts. This precedent could also apply to Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and possibly Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.