The Democrat-controlled House Judiciary Committee announced on Tuesday that it is moving forward with Democrats’ impeachment hearings and has scheduled hearings for next week.
Chairman Jerry Nadler sent a letter to the White House on Tuesday notifying the Trump administration that his committee had scheduled its first impeachment hearing for next Wednesday, December 4.
“The Committee intends this hearing to serve as an opportunity to discuss the historical and constitutional basis of impeachment, as well as the Framers’ intent and understanding of terms like ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,'” Nadler wrote. “We expect to discuss the constitutional framework through which the House may analyze the evidence gathered in the present inquiry. We will also discuss whether your alleged actions warrant the House’s exercising its authority to adopt articles of impeachment.”
“The Committee looks forward to your participation in the impeachment inquiry as the Committee fulfills its constitutional duties,” Nadler continued. “While we invite you to this hearing, we remind you that if you continue to refuse to make witnesses and documents available to the committees of jurisdiction, under H. Res. 660, ‘the chair shall have the discretion to impose appropriate remedies.'”
The move comes after Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee held public impeachment hearings over the last two weeks on President Donald Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
During the hearings, multiple witnesses, including Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, Senior NSC official Tim Morrison, Ambassador Kurt Volker, and Ambassador Gordon Sondland all testified that there was no quid pro quo during the phone call.
Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, who is Vice President Mike Pence’s National Security Adviser, released a statement last week stating that he was on the call and nothing improper took place.
“I was on the much-reported July 25 call between President Donald Trump and President Zelensky,” Kellogg wrote. “As an exceedingly proud member of President Trump’s Administration and as a 34-year highly experienced combat veteran who retired with the rank of Lieutenant General in the Army, I heard nothing wrong or improper on the call. I had and have no concerns.”
Kellogg’s statement came in response to testimony from Pence adviser Jennifer Williams before the Intelligence Committee.
The New York Times reported on Williams’ closed-door testimony last month, noting that she felt that the phone call was ‘unusual and inappropriate.’”
Democrats’ impeachment momentum appears to have started to gradually slow down as new polling found that interest in impeachment had dropped 5-points among Democrat voters.
At the start of the week, Democrat Rep. Brenda Lawrence (MI) — who beat her Republican opponent by 64 points in 2018 — said on a podcast that she saw “no value” in impeachment after she had repeatedly supported the effort in the months prior.
“You can censure, you don’t have to remove the president,” Lawrence said. “We are so close to an election. I will tell you, sitting here, knowing how divided this country is, I don’t see the value of kicking him out of office, but I do see the value of putting down a marker saying his behavior is not acceptable.”