House Republicans issue report on evidentiary findings from public testimony during impeachment inquiry
A majority of Democrats in the United States House of Representatives signaled their intention Thursday to move forward with articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.
And Congressman Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, continues to be a leading voice in the U.S. House against impeachment, asserting the effort by Democrats to remove the sitting president from office has more to do with ensuring he is not re-elected, than about any supposed wrongdoing committed by the White House.
Congressman Jordan reminds constituents, as well as the general public that more than a dozen Democrats sitting on the House Judiciary Committee voted to move forward with impeachment months before it was asserted that President Trump withheld U.S. military foreign aid until Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to investigate Hunter Biden’s role on the board of corrupt Ukrainian business entity.
Democrats have charged that President Trump intentionally withheld the foreign aid in order to secure investigations of a, “political rival.” Congressman Jordan and fellow Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives maintain the president has long been skeptical of foreign aid and corruption, and any delay in the release of $391 million in military aid to Ukraine was to ensure that incoming President Zelensky was doing everything in his power to eradicate widespread corruption in that country.
“The evidence presented does not prove any of these Democrat allegations, and none of the Democrats’ witnesses testified to having any evidence of bribery, extortion or any high crime or misdemeanor,” reads an evidentiary report on the impeachment inquiry compiled by leading house Republicans, including Congressman Jordan.
“Understood in (its) proper context the president’s initial hesitation to meet with President Zelensky or to provide U.S. taxpayer-funded security assistance to Ukraine without proper review is entirely prudent,” the 123-page report goes on.
Furthermore, given the widely-understood corruption of the Ukrainian company that Hunter Biden was affiliated with, it was also entirely proper for the president to question the involvement of the son of the former Vice-President, House GOP members assert.
“As far back as 2015, the Obama State Department had concerns about Hunter Biden’s role on the Burisma board (of directors),” according to the GOP report. “Ukrainian anti-corruption activists noted concerns as well.”
The impeachment narrative perpetuated by the Democratic majority “flips our system on its head,” Congressman Jordan asserts, by entrusting the execution of U.S. law to the, “un-elected bureaucracy.”
The entire impeachment inquiry has less to do with uncovering wrongdoing — because no wrongdoing occurred — and is instead about an, “obsession with re-litigating the results of the 2016 presidential election
“Despite their best efforts, the evidence gathered during the Democrats’ partisan and one-sided impeachment inquiry does not support that President Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rival to benefit the president in the 2020 presidential election,” House Republicans wrote.
Congressman Jordan asserts that rather than support Democrats’ claims evidence revealed during public testimony as part of the impeachment inquiry shows:
• President Trump has a deap-seated, genuine and reasonable skepticism of Ukraine due to its history of pervasive corruption;
• President Trump has a long-held skepticism of U.S. foreign assistance and believes that Europe should pay its fair share for mutual defense; and
• President Trump’s concerns about Hunter Biden’s role on the Burisma’s board are valid.
Moreover, evidence established during the inquiry fails to support claims that President Trump withheld a meeting with President Zelensky for the purpose of pressuring Ukraine to investigate Burisma Holdings, Vice-President Joe Bien or his son, Hunter Biden.
Congressman Jordan has also maintained that in an effort to make Democrats’ case, Adam Schiff, chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, has engaged in many of the same kind of activities they’ve accused the president of doing.
“Adam Schiff abused his power by targeting his political opponent for his personal political gain,” Congressman Jordan said. “Could you imagine if a Republican member of Congress went digging through a Democrat’s phone records?”
It comes down to, “one set of rules for them, (and) a different set for us,” Congressman Jordan said.