The House Intelligence Committee has evidence that shows that President Donald Trump engaged in an “extortion scheme” to pressure Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden, a Democratic member of the committee said Sunday.
The committee member, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), told CBS’ “Face The Nation” that the impeachment inquiry into Trump warrants advancement following the private testimonies of multiple witnesses.
“We have enough evidence from the depositions that we’ve done to warrant bringing this forward ― evidence of an extortion scheme using taxpayer dollars to ask a foreign government to investigate the president’s opponent,” Swalwell said.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) announced last week that the first of several public hearings in the impeachment inquiry will take place Nov. 13 and Nov. 15.
The first three people scheduled to testify publicly are Bill Taylor, the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine; Marie Yovanovitch, whom Taylor replaced after Trump recalled her; and George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary at the State Department.
“It’s important that the president has due process,” Swalwell said Sunday. “It’s important that these witnesses raise their right hands and take questions from both Republicans and Democrats. The president is going to get that.”
“This is America and we don’t just have railroading of justice,” he continued. “These witnesses should come public and, you know, the American people should judge for themselves, as well as we will, as to what happened here.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.