Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) moved to strike the first article of impeachment during the House Judiciary Committee's hearing on Thursday, saying the "abuse of power" charge "ignores the truth" and "the facts" surrounding President Trump's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In addition to abuse of power, the House presented an obstruction of Congress charge against Trump.
"This amendment strikes article one because article one ignores the truth. Four facts, five meetings. We’ve talked about it now for three months," Jordan said. "We've known there have been four facts that have not changed, will never change and we’ve known it since September 25th when the call transcript was released. The call transcript shows no quid pro quo. What’s interesting is the day the transcript came out, even Chairman Nadler said there was no quid pro quo in the call transcript.
Jordan went on to say how both Trump and Zelensky said there was no pressure and no linkage to the military aid and an investigation into Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, adding how Ukraine did not know, at the time of the call, the military aid had been put on hold.
"Most importantly, we know the Ukrainians took no action, no start of an investigation, no promise to start an investigation, no announcement on CNN, via tweet, no announcement whatsoever that there was going to be any type of investigation into Burisma or the Bidens to get the aid released. Those four facts. Those four facts have never changed," he continued.
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"Article one in this resolution ignores the truth, ignores the facts, ignores what happened and what has been laid out for the American people over the last three weeks. So I hope that this committee will come to its senses. That it will adopt the amendment and strike article one from the resolution," Jordan concluded.
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