Republicans have outlined in a memo ahead of public impeachment hearings four key pieces of evidence they believe undermine Democrats’ assertion that President Trump abused his authority by leveraging a presidential meeting and military aid in exchange for Ukraine conducting “political” investigations.
“Four key pieces of evidence are fatal to the Democrats’ allegations,” said the November 12, 2019, memo obtained by Breitbart News.
“Stripping away the hyperbole and hysteria, these indisputable pieces of evidence show that there was no ‘Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors,’ as required by the Constitution:
“These facts are:
- The July 25 call summary — the best evidence of the conversation — shows no conditionality or evidence of pressure;
- President Zelensky and President Trump have both said there was no pressure on the call;
- The Ukrainian government was not aware of a hold on U.S. security assistance at the time of the July 25 call; and
- President Trump met with President Zelensky and U.S. security assistance flowed to Ukraine in September 2019 — both of which occurred without Ukraine investigating President Trump’s political rivals.”
The memo comes a day before the impeachment inquiry hearings go public on Wednesday with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor and top State Department official on Ukraine George Kent.
The memo argued that instead, the evidence shows that Trump holds a “deep-seated, genuine, and reasonable skepticism of Ukraine due to its history of pervasive corruption.”
“Democrats want to impeach President Trump because unelected and anonymous bureaucrats disagreed with the President’s decisions and were discomforted by his telephone conversation with President Zelensky,” it said.
“The federal bureaucracy works for the President. The President works for the American people. And President Trump is doing what Americans elected him to do.”
The memo goes into the background of Ukraine’s history of corruption, Trump’s concern about that corruption, Ukraine’s interference in the 2016 election, and Trump’s desire for Europe to pay more for Ukraine’s defense. It also goes into each of the four key pieces of evidence they present.
Read the entire 18-page memo here:
GOP memo on impeachment inquiry hearings by Kristina Wong on Scribd