he House Judiciary Committee is taking the reins of the impeachment inquiry as the panel holds its first hearing of the next stage of the probe.
The committee, which will be responsible for drafting potential articles of impeachment, will hear from four constitutional law experts -- Noah Feldman, Pamela Karlan, Michael Gerhardt and Jonathan Turley.
It's the first hearing since the release of a 300-page report by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee that found “serious misconduct” by the Republican president.
In his opening statement, Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said, "The facts before us are undisputed. On July 25, Pres. Trump called Pres. Zelensky of Ukraine & in Pres. Trump's words, asked him for a favor. That call was part of a concerted effort by the president & his men to solicit a personal advantage in the next election."
In his opening statement, Ranking Member Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) said, "You just don't like the guy. You didn't like him since he was elected November 2016," Collins said. "So don't tell me this is about new evidence and new things and new stuff ... but this is nothing new, folks. This is sad."
He added, "It didn't start with Mueller, it didn't start with a phone call. You know where this started? It started with tears in Brooklyn in November 2016, when an election was lost."
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On Tuesday, the House Intelligence Committee voted to endorse a 300-page report written by the Democratic majority on President Trump's dealings with Ukraine.
The vote fell along party lines, with 13 Democrats voting to endorse the report and nine Republicans dissenting. The report was written by Democratic staffers on the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight Committees.
"This report chronicles a scheme by the president of the United States to coerce an ally, Ukraine, that is at war with an adversary, Russia, into doing the president's political dirty work," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said on Capitol Hill.
The report says the president "sought to undermine the integrity of the U.S. presidential election process" and "ordered and implemented a campaign to conceal his conduct from the public and frustrate and obstruct the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry" once his actions were uncovered.
The report was sent to the Judiciary Committee, along with a separate document prepared by Republican members defending the president.
Democrats are aiming for a final House vote by Christmas, which would set the stage for a likely Senate trial in January.
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The White House released this statement after the Intelligence Committee released its report on Tuesday:
“At the end of a one-sided sham process, Chairman Schiff and the Democrats utterly failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by President Trump. This report reflects nothing more than their frustrations. Chairman Schiff’s report reads like the ramblings of a basement blogger straining to prove something when there is evidence of nothing.”
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
