The issue, as always, is what kind of America do we want to be? Do we want the United States to be the kind of country where a president can try to blackmail foreign governments into going after his personal/politcal enemies or do we want elected people to be for the public good and follow the law?
1. The President Forced Out the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine 38
2. The President Put Guiliani and the Three Amigos in Charge of Ukraine Issues 51
3. The President Froze Military Assistance to Ukraine 67
4. The President's Meeting with the Ukranian President Was Conditioned on An Announcement of Investigations .. 83
5. The President Asked the Ukranian President to Interfere in the 2020 U.S. Elections by Investigating the Bidens and 2016 Election Interference 98
6. The President Wanted Ukraine to Announce the Investigations Publicly 114
7. The President's Conditioning of Military Assistance and a White House Meeting on Announcement of Investigations Raised Alarm 126
8. The President's Scheme was Exposed 140
Section II: The President's Obstruction of the House of Representatives Impeachment Inquiry 202
1. Constitutional Authority for Congressional Oversight and Impeachment 203
2. The President's Categorical Refusal to Comply 208
3. The President's Refusal to Produce Any and All Subpoenaed Documents 217
4 The President's Refusal to allow Top Aides to Testify 231
5. The President's Unsuccessful Attempts to Block Key Witnesses 245
6. The President's Intimidation of Witnesses 257
Appendix A: Key People and Entities 293
Appendix B: Abbreviations and Common Terms 299
**************************************************I'm bolding some parts of this as well as including some video, and links to documents
The impeachment inquiry into Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States, uncovered a months-long effort by President Trump to use the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 election. As described in this executive summary and the report that follows, President Trump’s scheme subverted U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine and undermined our national security in favor of two politically motivated investigations that would help his presidential reelection campaign. The President demanded that the newly-elected Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, publicly announce investigations into a political rival that he apparently feared the most, former Vice President Joe Biden, and into a discredited theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
To compel the Ukrainian President to do his political bidding, President Trump conditioned two official acts on the public announcement of the investigations: a coveted White House visit and critical U.S. military assistance Ukraine needed to fight its Russian adversary.
During a July 25, 2019, call between President Trump and President Zelensky, President Zelensky expressed gratitude for U.S. military assistance. President Trump immediately responded by asking President Zelensky to “do us a favor though” and openly pressed for Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Biden and the 2016 conspiracy theory. In turn, President Zelensky assured President Trump that he would pursue the investigation and reiterated his interest in the White House meeting.
Although President Trump’s scheme intentionally bypassed many career personnel, it was undertaken with the knowledge and approval of senior Administration officials, including the President’s Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. In fact, at a press conference weeks after public revelations about the scheme, Mr. Mulvaney publicly acknowledged that the President directly tied the hold on military aid to his desire to get Ukraine to conduct a political investigation, telling Americans to “get over it.”
President Trump and his senior officials may see nothing wrong with using the power of the Office of the President to pressure a foreign country to help the President’s reelection campaign. Indeed, President Trump continues to encourage Ukraine and other foreign countries to engage in the same kind of election interference today.
However, the Founding Fathers prescribed a remedy for a chief executive who places his personal interests above those of the country: impeachment. Accordingly, as part of the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, in coordination with the Committees on Oversight and Reform and Foreign Affairs, were compelled to undertake a serious, sober, and expeditious investigation into whether the President’s misconduct warrants that remedy.
In response, President Trump engaged in an unprecedented campaign of obstruction of this impeachment inquiry. Nevertheless, due in large measure to patriotic and courageous public servants who provided the Committees with direct evidence of the President’s actions, the Committees uncovered significant misconduct on the part of the President of the United States. As required under House Resolution 660, the Intelligence Committee, in consultation with the Committees on Oversight and Reform and Foreign Affairs, has prepared this report to detail the evidence uncovered to date, which will now be transmitted to the Judiciary Committee for its consideration.
