The U.S. House of Representatives released their anticipated impeachment report against President Trump today. Read the full report here.
The preface to the report was authored by Adam Schiff, chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
It states that the committee investigated a "months-long effort" by Trump to use his powers to "solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 election".
"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," Schiff wrote.
The House Intelligence Committee has held public and private hearings investigating the president for the past three months.
Witnesses reported hearing Trump and his representatives request Ukraine to investigate former vice president and current 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
The report included dozens of subpoenas for documents and took 100 hours of deposition from 17 witnesses. They also held seven public hearings with 12 witnesses.
The House Judiciary Committee will now discuss whether to vote to impeach Trump.
If they draft Articles of Impeachment, the House only needs a simple majority to impeach Trump.
If Articles of Impeachment are approved, the Senate must hold a trial to determine whether or not to convict.
Issues raised in the report:
* The report says Trump demanded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, to publicly announce investigations into political rival Biden.
* To compel Zelensky to do this, Trump allegedly "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," Schiff wrote.
* The report also states that during the House inquiry, Trump "engaged in an unprecedented campaign of obstruction of this impeachment inquiry."
* The report says former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yavonovitch was removed from her post in order to facilitate the investigation.
* $400 million in U.S. military assistance to Ukraine was frozen as leverage to get Ukraine to announce an investigation, the report also said.