December 9, 2019 – House Democrats are stampeding to impeach President Trump without evidence of any crime. On Monday, Dems will make their case based on Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s impeachment report. It claims to present “stark evidence of misconduct.”
In reality, the report plays tricks to frame Trump and damage his re-electability, while bending over backward to inoculate Joe Biden from accusations of foreign scandal. This isn’t a fact-finding report. It’s a Democratic campaign plan. Democrats can’t undo 2016, but they are determined to rig 2020. Tellingly, it treats Biden as if he has already got the nomination.
Lacking a crime, Schiff resorts to obstruction-of-justice charges. But the report shows Schiff is the one hiding evidence, not Trump.
The impeachment focuses on Trump’s July 25 call asking Ukraine’s president for a favor: help Washington investigate Ukrainian tampering with the 2016 election and Biden’s role, as vice president, getting a prosecutor there fired while Hunter Biden was on the payroll of a company possibly under investigation.
Trump didn’t say military aid depended on investigations, but Democrats claim it did. Schiff’s report comes up with zero evidence.
His committee grilled 18 witnesses. Only one, Ambassador Gordon Sondland, had firsthand knowledge of whether Trump intended a quid pro quo for aid. Sondland said Trump was “crystal clear” that aid did not hinge on investigations. Schiff dismisses that as a “false exculpatory” claim, on Page 24.
Instead, Schiff inflates testimony from disgruntled diplomats and National Security Council aide Tim Morrison. They never talked to Trump but heard rumors that aid was delayed while Trump waited for Ukraine to act. They “believed” or had an “understanding” of it. Slippery words, on Page 134, that Schiff tries to pawn off as evidence.
Lacking proof, Schiff charges obstruction. He implies, on Page 107, that Trump hid the transcript of the July 25 call on a highly classified server. Nonsense. Morrison and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman both testified the call record ended up there by mistake. And when asked, Trump released it.
Schiff also tries to nail Trump with obstruction for withholding documents and instructing White House officials not to testify, as Page 217 claims. That’s farcical.
Democrats are rushing to impeach, and Schiff says he refuses to “allow the White House to engage us in a lengthy game of rope-a-dope in the courts.” But Trump is entitled to court review of what he has to release. The notion that anyone, even a president, is guilty of obstruction for insisting on his legal rights is downright totalitarian.
It’s Schiff who is thwarting justice by impeaching without key witnesses or documents.
Instead, his report makes exonerating Biden a top priority. The 300-page report mentions the Bidens 239 times and is riddled with statements like this, on Page 103: “Multiple witnesses … testify that they were not aware of any credible evidence to support claims that former Vice President Biden acted inappropriately.”
Schiff’s report has an entire section titled “President Trump Promoted False Information About Former Vice President Joe Biden,” on Page 55. All politicians badmouth rivals. What business is it of the Intelligence Committee?
Schiff insists allegations of Biden wrongdoing “have been discredited,” “lacked any basis in fact,” “are without merit” and are a “false narrative.”
The real false narrative is about the whistleblower. On Page 143, Schiff’s report disingenuously claims first hearing about the whistleblower on Sept. 9. He also claimed that in media interviews, until The New York Times caught him in the lie. Truth is, his staffers guided the whistleblower to file a complaint, so they must have known about him earlier.
Yet Schiff refuses to surrender documents on his involvement and sees no reason to testify in a Senate trial. Without the whistleblower, there would be no impeachment. Did Schiff orchestrate a phony scandal, once the Mueller investigation led nowhere? It’s alarming to hear Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) speculate that perhaps witnesses aren’t needed. And Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) express reluctance to compel a House member to testify.
Trump, and the nation, have gotten a raw deal in Schiff’s report. We deserve fairness in the Senate.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York.