Impeachment Hearing With Legal Scholars: NPR

Constitutional law experts offered context on the impeachment inquiry that investigates the Trump administration’s delay in distributing congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine while requesting that country’s president to announce investigations of a political rival. Donald Trump and his supporters deny there was pressure. Three professors testified about holding deep concern over the president’s actions with Ukraine. Another suggested that “the factual case so far developed against Trump would cheapen impeachment and create a dangerous precedent both for Congress and for the executive branch,” reports Philip Ewing for NPR. Jonathan Turley disagreed that the president has not committed obstruction and urged Congress to wait for the courts to weigh in. On the other hand, Michael Gerhardt argued the case for impeachment was strong: “If Congress fails to impeach here, then the impeachment process has lost all meaning and, along with that, our Constitution's carefully crafted safeguards against the establishment of a king on American soil." The next steps: House committees draft articles of impeachment. The House of Representatives would then vote, and the Senate would conduct the trial. Update: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi authorized committees to draft articles of impeachment. – YaleGlobal