Intelligence Panel to Release Impeachment Report Soon After Thanksgiving

WASHINGTON — Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee plan to deliver a report soon after Thanksgiving making the case for impeaching President Trump, the chairman said on Monday, moving quickly to escalate what he called “urgent” evidence of wrongdoing by the president.

Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the Intelligence Committee chairman, wrote in a letter to colleagues that after two months of inquiry amid consistent stonewalling by Mr. Trump, his panel has uncovered “massive amounts of evidence” pointing to misconduct and “corrupt intent” by the president.

The evidence will be detailed in a report being drafted for public release and transmittal to the House Judiciary Committee shortly after lawmakers return from their holiday break, Mr. Schiff wrote. The Judiciary panel is expected to promptly draft and debate articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump based on its findings.

“The president has accepted or enlisted foreign nations to interfere in our upcoming elections, including the next one; this is an urgent matter that cannot wait if we are to protect the nation’s security and the integrity of our elections,” Mr. Schiff wrote.

His committee has collected dozens of hours of testimony supporting the underlying allegation at the center of the impeachment inquiry: that the president used the powers of his office to pressure Ukraine to discredit his political rivals — by pressuring its leader to announce investigations into former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and an unsupported theory that Democrats conspired with Ukraine to interfere in the 2016 election.

“As the evidence conclusively shows, President Trump conditioned official acts — a White House meeting desperately desired by the new Ukrainian president and critical U.S. military assistance — on Ukraine announcing sham, politically motivated investigations that would help President Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign,” Mr. Schiff said, encapsulating what is likely to be the core of Democrats’ report.

Mr. Schiff did not put a precise date on the delivery of his report to the Judiciary Committee, but the rough timeline he outlined would put Democrats on track to vote on impeachment articles by the end of the year, barring unexpected complications or a collapse in support within their caucus. If they are successful, a trial to determine whether Mr. Trump will be acquitted or removed from office would follow in the Senate.

At this point, Democrats expect to get little to no Republican support. The president’s allies have united firmly behind him to argue either that the facts laid out by senior diplomats and administration officials are incorrect, or that they simply do not merit impeachment.

The Judiciary Committee is expected in the coming days to announce public impeachment hearings to take place next week to hear the evidence on Ukraine and to begin to draft and debate impeachment articles, which are roughly analogous to charges in a courtroom trial. They could also convene sessions with expert witnesses to define impeachable offenses and offer Mr. Trump and his legal team a chance to present a defense or exculpatory evidence.

Mr. Schiff said that his committee would continue investigative work as it drafts its written report, and he said he could not rule out additional witness depositions or public hearings. The committee already conducted 17 private witness interviews and questioned a dozen of those witnesses in public in nationally televised hearings over the last two weeks.

“Even as we draft our report, we are open to the possibility that further evidence will come to light, whether in the form of witnesses who provide testimony or documents that become available,” Mr. Schiff said.

He also indicated that the Intelligence Committee was compiling a “catalog the instances of noncompliance with lawful subpoenas” as a part of its report so the Judiciary Committee could consider drafting an article of impeachment charging the president with obstructing Congress. Mr. Schiff noted in his letter that the Judiciary Committee approved an article along those lines in 1974 as it recommended the impeachment of Richard M. Nixon.

Republicans are said to be drafting their own dissenting views to accompany the report.

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