House Judiciary Chairman Says He Believes Democrats Have ‘Solid’ Impeachment Case

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) during a press conference in New York City on March 20, 2019. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) claimed Democrats have a “solid” case to impeach President Donald Trump, a day after his committee released a report.

“There is considerable direct evidence” of impeachment, Nadler told CNN on Sunday morning, adding that “it ill behooves a President or his partisans to say you don’t have enough direct evidence when the reason we don’t have even more evidence is the president has ordered everybody in the executive branch not to cooperate with Congress in the impeachment inquiry.”

House Democrats are investigating in their impeachment inquiry allegations that the president had leveraged his office during a call with Ukraine in July where he asked the Ukrainian president to look into corruption accusations on former Vice President Joe Biden—who is running for president in 2020.

Trump and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, have denied allegations of quid pro quo. Last weekend, Zelensky again reiterated there was no pressure in exchange for military aid.

Elaborating to CNN, Nadler said that if Democrats’ case was “presented to a jury [there] would be a guilty verdict in about three minutes flat.”

Meanwhile, findings from the report commissioned by investigator Robert Mueller—who found Trump’s campaign did not collude with Russia during the 2016 election—may not be included in the impeachment report, Nadler suggested in the CNN interview.

On Monday, Nadler’s committee is scheduled to hold another hearing on impeachment, coming several days after a Dec. 4 hearing where three Democrat-selected legal experts testified—amid some controversy that included one law professor making a reference to Trump’s 13-year-old son Barron—that Trump committed an impeachable offense. The lone Republican-selected law professor said Democrats are rushing too quickly and added that their evidence is scant.

Trump on Saturday again said he did nothing wrong.

“Read the Transcripts! Also, see where I say ‘us’ (our Country) as opposed to ’me’ (meaning me) and where I then say that the Attorney General (of the United States) will call you. People still remember Schiff’s made up and fraudulent version of my conversation. Witch Hunt!” he wrote on Twitter, referring to transcripts the White House had released of Trump’s calls with Zelensky. He also referred to House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

Just days before Nadler’s comments to CNN, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that her caucus would be pursuing articles of impeachment against Trump.

Trump’s dealings with Ukraine “have seriously violated the Constitution,” the speaker said. Pelosi said. “He is trying to corrupt, once again, the election for his own benefit. The president has engaged in abuse of power, undermining our national security and jeopardizing the integrity of our election.”

Republicans who reviewed the transcript stood by Trump.

“I think it was a perfectly appropriate phone call, it was a congratulatory phone call,” said Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) in September. “The Democrats continually make these huge claims and allegations about President Trump, and then you find out there’s no there there.”