On Monday, Republicans circulated an internal memo to Republican members of Congress outlining vital “pieces of evidence” they believe are “fatal” to the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
Democrats have claimed President Trump engaged in a quid pro quo, of which there is no evidence, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a July 25 phone call. The impeachment effort centers around a whistleblower complaint about Trump asking Ukraine to “look into” corruption allegations concerning former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
But, as outlined by the memo, there are various holes in the allegations, such as Ukraine not even being aware of the supposed conditionality of the aid, which made its way to the nation without any Biden investigation.
Here are all four pieces of evidence outlined in the memo, via Axios:
● The July 25 call summary — the best evidence of the conversation — shows no conditionality or evidence of pressure;
● President Zelensky and President Trump have both said there was no pressure on the call;
● The Ukrainian government was not aware of a hold on U.S. security assistance at the time of the July 25 call; and
● President Trump met with President Zelensky and U.S. security assistance flowed to Ukraine in September 2019 — both of which occurred without Ukraine investigating President Trump’s political rivals.
“Trump had a deep-seated, genuine and reasonable skepticism of Ukraine and U.S. taxpayer-funded foreign aid” due to the nation’s “long history of pervasive corruption,” the “background” section of the memo stated, as noted by The Blaze.
“Senior Ukrainian government officials interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in opposition to President Trump,” the memo also highlighted. The Republicans cited an August 2016 report from the Financial Times, among other statements, as evidence of the interference:
Though most Ukrainians are disillusioned with the country’s current leadership for stalled reforms and lacklustre anti-corruption efforts, Mr Leshchenko said events of the past two years had locked Ukraine on to a pro-western course. The majority of Ukraine’s politicians, he added, are “on Hillary Clinton’s side”.
The fierce defense against the impeachment inquiry has been coming from President Trump, too, as expected.
“Leading up to the official public impeachment inquiry, President Trump has been blasting away on Twitter with even more frequency than he’s famous for doing,” The Daily Wire reported Wednesday morning. “In a series of tweets starting on the eve of the inquiry, which kicks off on Capitol Hill Wednesday, the president highlighted arguments and quotes from various Republicans and political commentators making the case that the Democrats are engaged in a ‘partisan sham’ based on an accusation that the evidence shows is ‘fraudulent.'”
One point stressed by Trump is “House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s consultation with the whistleblower before filing the initial complaint,” The Daily Wire noted. “Trump pointed to Schiff’s problematic conduct again Tuesday by posting a video put together by the House Oversight Committee Republicans highlighting Schiff’s shady involvement with the whistleblower and his infamous ‘summary’ of Trump’s call on the House floor.”
Watch the video, below:
Schiff's Sham Impeachment. pic.twitter.com/pmLfx30YZL
— Oversight Committee Republicans (@GOPoversight) November 12, 2019