Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


US Constitutional Scholars Testify at Trump Impeachment Hearing

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - The next step by congressional Democrats pushing the
   impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump is unfolding Wednesday, with
   four constitutional scholars testifying on what they believe the
   country's founding fathers intended when they decided how a president
   could be impeached and removed from office.

   The Democratic majority on the House Judiciary Committee is calling law
   professors Noah Feldman of Harvard, Pamela Karlan of Stanford and
   Michael Gerhardt of North Carolina to advance their case that Trump
   abused the presidency by pushing Ukrainian President Volodymyr
   Zelenskiy to investigate one of his chief 2020 Democratic rivals,
   former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter's work for a Ukrainian
   natural gas company and a debunked theory that Ukraine, and not Russia,
   meddled in the 2016 U.S. election.

   Watch Hearing LIVE:

   In a prepared opening statement, Gerhardt says, "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. No one, not even
   the president, is beyond the reach of our Constitution and our laws."

   Republicans defending Trump are calling George Washington University
   law professor Jonathan Turley to buttress their contention that Trump
   did nothing wrong while asking for the Ukrainian investigations at the
   same time he was withholding $391 billion in military aid Kyiv wanted
   to help fight pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Trump
   eventually released the assistance in September without Ukraine opening
   the Biden investigations, proof, Republicans say, that there was no
   quid pro quo, an exchange of favors between Trump and Ukraine.

.