House Intel Committee report says Trump 'compromised' US' interests, White House decries it as 'sham'

Washington DC [USA], Dec 4 (ANI): The Democrat-led House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released a draft report based on its findings from impeachment inquiry, in which President Donald Trump is accused of compromising the country's national interests for his own personal and political purposes and misusing office to seek foreign help in the 2020 presidential election.
In a 300-page report, the committee gave in-depth details of the allegations against the President involving Ukraine, saying that the evidence of Trump's misconduct and obstruction of Congress is "overwhelming".
"The President engaged in this course of conduct for the benefit of his own presidential re-election, to harm the election prospects of a political rival, and to influence our nation's upcoming presidential election to his advantage, CNN said citing the report.
"In doing so, the President placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States, sought to undermine the integrity of the US presidential election process, and endangered US national security," it added while stopping short of outright impeachment recommendation, underlining that the ultimate decision will be done by the Congress.
The report drew a comparison between Trump's lack of synergy with Congress with the cooperation in previous administrations, accusing the US President of engaging in "unprecedented stonewalling".
"Indeed, it would be hard to imagine a stronger or more complete case of obstruction than that demonstrated by the President since the inquiry began," the report said.
The committee, led by House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, is expected to vote to approve the draft document on Tuesday evening following which it will be sent to the House Judiciary Committee.
The report was compiled based largely on the interviews of 17 witnesses conducted over the last several months, including 12 of them at two weeks of public hearings. This included testimonies including the one where Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani spearheaded a lengthy effort to remove the US ambassador to Ukraine and then push Kiev to launch probe against the President's political rivals.
Reacting to the report, Trump's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, criticised the report and termed it as a "one-sided sham process".
"At the end of a one-sided sham process, Chairman Schiff and the Democrats utterly failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by President Trump. This report reflects nothing more than their frustrations. Chairman Schiff's report reads like the ramblings of a basement blogger straining to prove something when there is evidence of nothing," Grisham was quoted by USAToday as saying.
The impeachment inquiry was launched by the House Democrats back in September after a phone call made by Trump to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky for allegedly asking to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Trump has repeatedly said that he did not engage in a quid pro quo and characterised the impeachment bid as another political witch hunt by the Democrats to reverse the results of the 2016 presidential polls.
The White House said that it would not participate in the first impeachment hearings before the House Judiciary Committee scheduled for Wednesday this week. (ANI)