'I'm insulted': Impeachment witness slams GOP lawmaker saying she doesn't know the facts

A witness at the House Judiciary Committee’s first impeachment hearing slammed the top-ranking Republican on the panel, Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, saying he insulted her when he claimed in his opening statement that the witnesses “couldn’t have possibly actually digested” the reports from the impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump.

“Mr. Collins, I would like to say to you, sir, that I read transcripts of every one of the witnesses who appeared in the live hearing because I would not speak about these things without reviewing the facts,” said Pamela Karlan, a professor at Stanford University Law School and witness at the hearing. “So I am insulted by the suggestion that as a law professor I don’t care about those facts.”

Karlan went on to say that she believes Trump committed impeachable offenses when he allegedly demanded Ukraine investigate his political rivals in order to receive the military aid Congress had already appropriated to the country.

“Everything I know about our Constitution and its values, and my review of the evidentiary record, tells me that when President Trump invited — indeed, demanded — foreign involvement in our upcoming election, he struck at the very heart of what makes this country the ‘republic’ to which we pledge allegiance,” Karlan said in her opening statement. “That demand constituted an abuse of power.”

Karlan is one of four legal scholars testifying in the hearing — which Republicans repeatedly tried to delay, interrupt, and stymie.

Other witnesses also said Trump committed impeachable acts, both by conditioning aid to Ukraine, and by obstructing the congressional investigation.

“President Trump has committed impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors by corruptly abusing the office of the presidency,” Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman said in his testimony.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.