House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NJ) on Sunday appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" to discuss Democrats' impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. According to Nadler, Democrats "have a very rock-solid case" against the president.
“I think the case we have, if presented to a jury, would be a guilty verdict in about three minutes flat,” he said. "All this nonsense about hearsay – there is considerable direct evidence.”
Nadler claimed the Democrats don't have more direct evidence because the White House has blocked officials from testifying in the impeachment inquiry, citing executive privilege.
“And it ill behooves a president or his partisans to say, ‘you don’t have enough direct evidence,’ when the reason we don’t have even more direct evidence is because the president has ordered everybody in the executive branch not to cooperate with Congress in the impeachment inquiry, something that is unprecedented in American history and is a contempt of congress by itself,” the Judiciary Committee Chairman said.
“The only testimony we have are from public spirited, patriotic people in the CIA, the Pentagon, the White House itself who came forward and defied the president's orders and testified,” he said.
“We have a very rock solid case,” @RepJerryNadler says about the House Democrats' impeachment case. “The case we have if presented to a jury would be a guilty verdict in about three minutes flat.” https://t.co/TWeC2mhpgk #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/QCYqBEcK1G
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) December 8, 2019
In another Sunday interview, Nadler said it's likely that his Committee will bring forward articles of impeachment as early as this week.
"We’ll bring articles of impeachment presumably before the committee at some point later in the week,” Nadler told NBC's Chuck Todd.
The Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Monday about what members of the House Intelligence Committee gathered during their investigation. The Intelligence Committee's investigation focused on alleged quid pro quo – or what the Democrats have now rebranded as "bribery." The Democrats claim Trump wanted former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, investigated for corruption for political gain. They say Trump threatened to withhold military aid from Ukraine unless Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky investigated the Bidens' corrupt behavior.
At the time, Vice President Biden was handling international relations with Ukraine on behalf of the Obama administration. At the same time, Hunter was being paid $50,000 a month by corrupt Ukrainian gas company Burisma to sit on their board of directors, despite having no natural energy experience.