Congress pushes ahead on impeachment

The House impeachment report on President Donald Trump will be unveiled Monday behind closed doors as Democrats push ahead with the inquiry despite the White House's declaration it will not participate in the first Judiciary Committee hearing.
The House impeachment report on President Donald Trump will be unveiled Monday behind closed doors as Democrats push ahead with the inquiry despite the White House's declaration it will not participate in the first Judiciary Committee hearing.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House is plunging into a landmark impeachment week, with Democrats who once hoped to sway Republicans now facing the prospect of an ever-hardening partisan split over the historic question of removing President Donald Trump from office.

Lawmakers were getting their first look at the House Intelligence Committee's impeachment report Monday night behind closed doors. The findings are expected to make the Democrats' case that Trump engaged in what Chairman Adam Schiff calls impeachable "wrongdoing and misconduct" in pressuring Ukraine to investigate Democrats and Joe Biden while withholding military aid to the ally.

For Republicans offering an early rebuttal ahead of the report's public release, the proceedings are simply a "hoax," with Trump insisting he did nothing wrong and his GOP allies in line behind him. Trump tweeted his daily complaints about it all and then added a suggestive, if impractical, question: "Can we go to Supreme Court to stop?"

The report, which the Intelligence panel will vote on today and make public, also is expected to include evidence the Democrats say suggests obstruction of Congress, based on Trump's instructions for his administration to defy subpoenas for documents and testimony.

The Judiciary Committee is set to launch its first hearing Wednesday with legal experts to assess the findings and consider potential articles of impeachment ahead of a possible vote by the full House by Christmas. That would presumably send it to the Senate for a trial in January.