Judiciary committee’s impeachment hearings: key takeaways

By GNNLiberia On Dec 4, 2019 69

Four constitutional law experts testified before the House panel as Democrats outlined an impeachment road map

Tom McCarthy @TeeMcSee|The Guardian Online |

Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House judiciary committee, and ranking member Doug Collins, a Republican, in Washington DC on 4 December. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

(www.theguardian.com) – Public impeachment hearings moved on Wednesday to the House judiciary committee, where four constitutional law experts testified about whether alleged misconduct by Donald Trump investigated in previous impeachment hearings rises to the level of impeachable offenses.

Here are five key takeaways from this next step of the process:

Trump provides extreme example of impeachable conduct – witnesses

Three witnesses called by Democrats said that the president’s use of official acts for personal gain in defiance of US national security interests was clearly an impeachable offense.

“If what we’re talking about is not impeachable, then nothing is impeachable,” said witness Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina law professor. “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.”