WASHINGTON -- The House Intelligence Committee released a report Tuesday that said President Donald Trump placed his political interests above national interests in his conduct toward Ukraine.
The report said Trump had "compromised national security to advance his personal political interests" in his dealings with Ukraine.
The committee also found that Trump "engaged in an unprecedented campaign of obstruction of this impeachment inquiry."
Democrats are seeking to build a case that Trump leveraged military assistance and an Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in exchange for investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, and a theory alleging Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.
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The House intelligence panel voted later Tuesday, in a party-line tally, to send the document to the Judiciary Committee, which will consider articles of impeachment against Trump.
"To compel the Ukrainian President to do his political bidding, President Trump conditioned two official acts on the public announcement of the investigations: a coveted White House visit and critical U.S. military assistance Ukraine needed to fight its Russian adversary," the report said.
The White House lambasted the report in a statement in which it also compared the panel's chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., to a "basement blogger."
"At the end of a one-sided sham process, Chairman Schiff and the Democrats utterly failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by President Trump," White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said shortly after the document was released.
Republicans defended the president in their own 123-page rebuttal claiming that Trump never intended to pressure Ukraine when he asked for investigations of Democrats and Joe Biden. They say the military aid the White House was withholding was not being used as leverage, as Democrats claim -- and besides, the $400 million was ultimately released. Democrats, they argue, just want to undo the 2016 election.
While the report did not specifically recommend articles of impeachment, it appeared to endorse a charge that Trump obstructed Congress. The committee reports that a dozen witnesses "followed President Trump's orders, defying voluntary requests and lawful subpoenas, and refusing to testify."
Some of those were Trump's closest associates, who could have spoken firsthand about the Ukraine campaign, including acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.
"The evidence of the President's misconduct is overwhelming, and so too is the evidence of his obstruction of Congress," the report reads. "Indeed, it would be hard to imagine a stronger or more complete case of obstruction than that demonstrated by the President since the inquiry began."
Democrats also accused Trump of having "engaged in a brazen effort to publicly attack and intimidate witnesses" who stepped forward to testify -- conduct, they said, that raises "grave concerns about potential violations of the federal obstruction statute and other criminal laws intended to protect witnesses appearing before Congressional proceedings."
Among the instances cited are Trump's repeated attacks on former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, a string of comments targeting the anonymous whistleblower, and accusations that several witnesses were "never Trumpers.
"The President's attacks were broadcast to millions of Americans -- including witnesses' families, friends, and coworkers -- and his actions drew criticism from across the political spectrum, including from his own Republican supporters," the Democrats wrote. "This campaign of intimidation risks discouraging witnesses from coming forward voluntarily, complying with mandatory subpoenas for documents and testimony, and disclosing evidence that may support consideration of articles of impeachment."
TRUMP DENOUNCEMENT
Trump on Tuesday called Democrats "very unpatriotic" for pursuing his impeachment while he is overseas meeting with other NATO leaders. He dismissed the possibility of a congressional censure as an alternative to removal from office.
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His latest comments on the impeachment inquiry came during a one-on-one meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, when Trump fielded questions from reporters for nearly an hour.
Asked if impeachment proceedings cast a cloud over his negotiations at the NATO summit, Trump criticized Democrats.
"I think it's very unpatriotic for the Democrats to put on a performance where they do that," he said. "I do. I think it's a bad thing for our country. Impeachment wasn't supposed to be used that way. ... Does it cast a cloud? Well, if it does, then the Democrats have done a very great disservice to the country, which they have. They've wasted a lot of time."
Trump said he wants top administration officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to testify in the impeachment inquiry, but only during a Senate trial.
[DOCUMENT: The Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report » arkansasonline.com/124report/]
"I want them to testify but I want them to testify in the Senate," Trump told reporters during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
Earlier in the day, Trump said Schiff was "deranged" and "sick," accusing Democrats of trying to overturn the results of the 2016 elections through an impeachment inquiry that he said "turned out to be a hoax."
"It's done for purely political gain," Trump said. "They're going to see whether or not they can do something in 2020 because otherwise they're going to lose."
Trump also dismissed an idea that has been floated in Congress of censuring him for his conduct toward Ukraine rather than impeaching him.
"I heard about it," Trump said. "Now they want to go to censure because they have no case for impeachment. So they want to go to censure. I don't want them to go to censure. ... I don't mind being censured if you do something wrong. I did nothing wrong."
HEARING SCHEDULED
Meanwhile, the Judiciary Committee has scheduled its first hearing in the impeachment inquiry for today. Four law professors -- three chosen by Democrats and one by Republicans -- are to testify on the "constitutional grounds for presidential impeachment."
The three chosen by Democrats are Harvard Law School professor Noah Feldman, Stanford University professor Pamela Karlan and University of North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhardt. The one invited by Republicans is George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley.
The White House declined an invitation to participate, with counsel Pat Cipollone denouncing the proceedings as a "baseless and highly partisan inquiry."
Republicans on the Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., reiterating their party's widespread accusation that the investigation into Trump is a distraction from their legislative responsibilities. They wrote that Democrats "have utterly failed in their duty to the American people."
The Republican lawmakers listed areas such as immigration, gun violence, domestic terrorism, opioid addiction and election security as issues Democrats have ignored. Democrats have passed bills, including ones on voting rights, gun safety and migrant protections -- but along strictly partisan lines.
Also Tuesday, in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, David Hale, undersecretary of state for political affairs, told the committee that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was not a "hoax," and that he has seen no evidence to suggest that Ukraine was guilty of interference in that election.
Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the panel, asked Hale whether he had any reason to disagree with testimony former White House national security expert Fiona Hill gave the House that the theory about Ukraine's interference "is a fictional narrative that is being perpetrated and propagated by the Russian Security Services themselves."
Hale, the third-ranking State Department official, said he did not.
Menendez went on to point out that Trump has continued to press the Ukraine theory even though it was disputed by career diplomats and intelligence officials.
"Is our national security made stronger or weaker when members of the administration or members of Congress insist on repeating debunked Russian lies?" Menendez asked.
"That does not serve our interest," Hale said.
Information for this article was contributed by John Wagner, Colby Itkowitz and Philip Rucker of The Washington Post; by Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick, Zeke Miller, Colleen Long, Eric Tucker and Jill Colvin of The Associated Press; by Laura Litvan of Bloomberg News; and by Michael D. Shear and Nicholas Fandos of The New York Times.
A Section on 12/04/2019