Donald Trump is the first US president to have apparently sought personal favours from a foreign nation, the impeachment inquiry has been told.
Jerry Nadler, the Democratic chair of the House Judiciary Committee, opened proceedings in the latest phase of the impeachment probe, by claiming Mr Trump had acted in a way that was unprecedented.
“The facts before are us are undisputed. He did everything in his power to prevent the American people from learning about his conduct,” he said.
“But never before, in the history of the republic, have we been forced to consider the conduct of a president who appears to have solicited personal, political favours from a foreign government.”
He added: “Never before has a president engaged in a course of conduct that included all of the acts that most concerned the framers.”
Mr Nadler acknowledged an election was less than 12 months away.
But he the nation could not wait for the election to address the present crisis.
“The integrity of that election the one of the very things at stake,” he added.
The senior Republican on the committee, Doug Collins, claimed that Democrats were pursuing a rapid impeachment vote not because of concerns about the integrity of the election but because they are worried about the election’s outcome
“The chairman said it just a second ago — because we’re scared of the elections next year. We’re scared of the elections — we’ll lose again. So we’ve got to do this now,” Mr Collins said. “The clock and the calendar are what’s driving impeachment, not the facts.”
The remarks came before four legal scholars who testified before the committee.
Three of the scholars called by Democrats said the evidence relating to Mr Trump’s July 25 call with the leader of Ukraine amounted to impeachable offences.
Meanwhile, a law professor called by Republicans, said the impeachment inquiry lacked testimony from people with direct knowledge of the events.
The scholar said the evidence did not show that Mr Trump had committed “a clear criminal act”, according to written opening remarks prepared for the committee.
