The House Intelligence Committee is expected to review a report on Monday of the panel's investigation into whether President Trump pressured the Ukrainian government into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, according to Politico.
Chairman Adam Schiff has previously stated that the report would be coming soon without providing a specific date. There is a 24-hour review period of the report, which will likely pass the panel on a party-line vote before heading to the House Judiciary Committee for further consideration.
The report may give Democrats another chance to repackage their case against President Trump to the American people. Polling showed the American people practically unmoved by the televised impeachment hearings and some independents turned-off from the idea of impeaching the president.
On Friday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler gave President Trump a deadline of next Friday to inform the committee on whether or not the president intends to participate in his own defense by presenting evidence and calling witnesses. The House Judiciary Committee also plans to conduct hearings related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia report and its findings.
In Nadler's letter to President Trump on Friday, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee said the report expected on Monday from the House Intelligence Committee panel will describe "'a months-long effort in which President Trump again sought foreign interference in our elections for his personal and political benefit at the expense of our national interest'" and engaged in "an unprecedented campaign of obstruction in an effort to prevent the Committees from obtaining documentary evidence and testimony."
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Nadler also wrote a letter to House Judiciary Committee Ranking Republican Doug Collins, similarly giving Collins a deadline to submit any request for presenting evidence and issuing subpoenas. Under House rules, the chair of the Judiciary Committee must approve any such requests made by minority members on the committee. The House Judiciary Committee is holding its first hearing on the constitutional basis of impeachment on Dec. 4.
Rep. Collins tweeted that it was a joke for Democrats to claim that President Trump would have an opportunity to defend himself at next week’s hearing. Collins has already called the impeachment effort a sham, complaining that instead of having Rep. Adam Schiff testify under oath, "we are bringing in academics whose minds are already set against [the president] to give their opinion on this sham impeachment."
For Democrats to claim next week’s hearing gives @realDonaldTrump a chance to defend himself is a joke.
— Rep. Doug Collins (@RepDougCollins) November 27, 2019
Instead of bringing in Adam Schiff under oath, we are bringing in academics whose minds are already set against POTUS to give their opinion on this sham impeachment.
If the House Judiciary Committee moves forward with articles of impeachment, the full House is expected to vote to send impeachment articles to the Senate before the Christmas recess. The full House vote is expected to put House Democrats in Trump-supporting districts in troubling political waters.
Last week, Brenda Lawrence (D-MI) proposed censuring the president rather than impeaching him but was quick to backtrack her comments after her words made it out of her district and into the ears of Democratic leadership.
Two Democrats joined with Republicans to vote against the impeachment resolution after the closed-door hearings had already begun. After all of the evidence has been seen and weighed by the American people, it's hard not to imagine more vulnerable Democrats breaking with the party line to safeguard their reelection chances in 2020.
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