The House Intelligence Committee Democrats released their 300-page impeachment report Tuesday afternoon, based on those interviews that took place in Rep. Adam Schiff’s secure bunker in the Capitol Building and the testimony of those witnesses called to testify in the public Intelligence Committee hearings.
Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina was good enough to read through the report, which was released awfully close to the time the full Intelligence Committee was to vote on it. It certainly seems like the Democrats are in a very big hurry, which is odd; they keep signaling that there won’t be a full House vote until after Christmas, so probably sometime early in 2020, but they also have to keep the public’s interest so Democrats in unsafe seats aren’t asked to vote on something for which the public has no appetite.
There are some surprising documents included in the report, including subpoenaed phone records, which some say implicate Rep. Devin Nunes in the Ukraine scheme. There is also a lot of testimony based on hearsay, and there are a few other problems too, which Meadows lays out here:
The House Democrats' impeachment report is 300 pages of nonsense, with far too many problems to address individually. But let's go over a few of them…
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 4, 2019
1) Up front, Democrats released this report to the public around 2:00pm. Again, it's 300 pages. They're having the full Intelligence Committee vote on the report the same day… just a few hours later. Should be an automatic red flag.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 4, 2019
2) Democrats claim @realDonaldTrump "demanded" Ukraine investigations. They build their case on this using Alexander Vindman, who said he interpreted the call this way too.
The "demand" characterization is ridiculous, for many reasons. @RepChrisStewart lays out a few. pic.twitter.com/om6xhHozCT
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 4, 2019
Additionally, Tim Morrison, Vindman's SUPERIOR, testified and directly undermined Vindman's interpretation. Morrison says there was NO "demand" at all. pic.twitter.com/waaWNQYCo4
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 4, 2019
In fact, Vindman actually undermined his *own* claim. Note page 256 of his deposition, where he gets pressed on whether Trump "demanded" anything:
Vindman eventually admits: "I guess you can interpret it in different ways."
Trump didn't demand anything. pic.twitter.com/51IXPHVzvA
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 4, 2019
3) Democrats rely enormously on Gordon Sondland. His name appears over 600 times (!) in their report.
FLASHBACK: When Gordon Sondland was asked if he had any evidence @realDonaldTrump tied aid to investigations, Sondland said no—"other than my own presumption." pic.twitter.com/4Ff4QHkimG
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 4, 2019
So again, for the entire reason we're here—the accusation that President Trump tied aid and political investigations—Gordon Sondland, one of the Democrats' most featured witnesses (cited 600+ times), admits he has no evidence of it.
That is stunning.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 4, 2019
4) But it wasn't just Sondland. No Democrat witness brought any firsthand knowledge of Trump decisions. Taylor, Kent, Yovanovitch, Vindman, Hill, etc. None. Not one could provide any firsthand information of Trump tying aid to political investigations.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 4, 2019
5) Ambassador Volker shredded the Democrats' case, and they ignored it. Remember: Volker said @realDonaldTrump never told him of an aid/political investigations link, and Ukraine never mentioned it either.
Mind you, Volker actually spoke to POTUS. He had firsthand knowledge. pic.twitter.com/kt3JuLIkG9
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 4, 2019
Tim Morrison confirmed Volker's account.
In other words, these Democrat-led impeachment hearings were one career bureaucrat after another saying (without evidence) they "believed" there was a political quid pro quo – while officials in the room say it never happened.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 4, 2019
6) Between July 18 (when aid got paused) and Sept 11 (when aid was released), there were 5 interactions between President Zelensky and U.S. officials.
A link between aid/investigations was discussed in ZERO of those interactions. 0/5. The Democrat report virtually ignores this.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 4, 2019
Here are those 5 interactions, if you're curious.
7/25: Trump/Zelensky phone call
7/26: Volker & Taylor meet Zelensky
8/27: Bolton meets Zelensky
9/1: VP Pence meets Zelensky
9/5: Sens. Johnson, Murphy meet ZelenskyNot *one time* was an aid/investigation link discussed.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 4, 2019
To recap:
A) There was no "demand"
B) No Democrat witness had any firsthand evidence of an aid/political investigations link
C) Multiple witnesses who spoke to POTUS say: there was no political link
D) A political link didn't come up once in FIVE U.S.-Zelensky interactions.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 4, 2019
Bottom line: Democrats can write what they want, but they can't provide any serious evidence supporting this latest conspiracy theory. And they know it.
This Democrat impeachment effort is (and will continue to be) baseless and nakedly partisan.
Americans will see through it.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 4, 2019
And as a bonus, here’s Rep. Lee Zeldin with another claim that doesn’t hold water:
# of RTs on this claim Nunes met w/Shokin in Vienna in Dec ‘18: 13.6k
# or RTs on the correction to clear up that Nunes in fact did NOT meet w/Shokin & was actually in Libya at that time: 0. Not even a correction…Just false hearsay peddled through an indicted suspect’s atty. pic.twitter.com/U4PJDK1bpq
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) December 4, 2019
When it comes down to the wire, members of Congress are going to have to take this seriously and look for an airtight case, which the Democrats don’t have.
Related:
Mike Pence’s national security advisor issues statement on Ukraine call: ‘I heard nothing wrong or improper’ https://t.co/lEWPdBpO9p
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) November 19, 2019
