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US House cmte starts Trump impeachment hearings

WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (KUNA) -- The US House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee commenced on Wednesday public hearings of President Donald Trump impeachment process.
During the hearing, four law professors gave their views and assessments about the alleged legal and constitutional violations committed by the president during his controversial call with Ukraine president last July.
President Trump has turned down an invitation from the committee to attend today's hearing.
At the start of the session, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee Jerry Nadle accused President Trump of abusing his power to demand foreign interference in US elections.
"President Trump welcomed foreign interference in the 2016 election. He demanded it for the 2020 election," he said in the inaugural speech.
"In both cases, he got caught, and in both cases he did everything in his power to prevent the American people from learning the truth about his conduct." Three of the four law professors who attended today's session, namely Harvard University's Noah Feldman, Stanford University's Pamela Karlan and North Carolina's Michael Gerhardt, were all asked, based on the House Intelligence Committee evidence, "Did President Trump commit the impeachable high crime and misdemeanor of abuse of power?" All said that he did.
"If what we're talking about is not impeachable, then nothing is impeachable," Gerhardt said.
"This is precisely the misconduct that the framers created a Constitution, including impeachment, to protect against." Professor Feldman also noted that "Based on that evidence and those findings, the president did commit an impeachable abuse of office." Meanwhile, Republican Committee Member Doug Collins accused Democrats of targeting President Trump because they fearing losing for him in next year presidential elections.
"They want to do it before the end of the year why, because the Chairman said it just a second ago because we are scared of the elections next year.
"We are scared of the election that we will lose again so we've got to do this now," he said.
On Tuesday, the House Intelligence Committee said in a report that evidence gathered shows President Trump's "clear" misconduct and obstruction had put national security at risk.
The 300-page report highlights that "President Trump used the power of his office to pressure Ukraine into announcing investigations into his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden," in a move aimed at benefiting his reelection campaign.
It also accuses the president of withholding US military assistance to Ukraine in return for the investigation.
The document further accused Trump of "categorical and unprecedented obstruction in order to cover-up his misconduct," saying his actions "damaged our national security, undermined the integrity of the next election, and violated his oath of office." (end) osj.ibi