WASHINGTON — House Republicans argue in a 123-page minority report that Democrats have failed to establish any impeachable offenses by President Donald Trump, according to a copy of the report reviewed by NBC News.
The GOP lawmakers did not find any wrongdoing by the president and concluded that there was no quid pro quo for aid to Ukraine.
"The Democrats' impeachment inquiry, led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, is merely the outgrowth of their obsession with re-litigating the results of the 2016 presidential election," the Republican staff of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees wrote.
"Despite their best efforts, the evidence gathered during the Democrats' partisan and one-sided impeachment inquiry does not support that President Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rival to benefit the President in the 2020 presidential election.
"The evidence does not establish any impeachable offense," the report concludes.
Democrats on the committees will be putting out their own lengthy report on the last few weeks of hearings, and it is expected to reach very different conclusions. The Democratic report will be voted upon on Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee begins its impeachment hearings on Wednesday. The report will be released to the public Tuesday, Schiff said.
Schiff, who said in a statement earlier Monday that the GOP report was "intended for an audience of one," said Monday night on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" that "our work goes on." He said that the committee was "continuing to issue subpoenas" and that it would file a supplemental report if necessary.
Schiff said that the evidence outlines "in considerable detail" a scheme to further Trump's interests even well before the State Department recalled Marie Yovanovitch as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine in May.
Yovanovitch was recalled following claims by supporters of the president that she was undermining Trump's efforts to put pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden to benefit Trump's 2020 re-election campaign.
The GOP report said there was no evidence that Trump improperly withheld $391 million in military aid to Ukraine or pressured Zelenskiy.
The Republicans also assert that Trump's action regarding Ukraine stem from his longstanding concern about "its history of pervasive corruption," and they argue that there is "nothing wrong" with asking serious questions about the presence of Hunter Biden, Biden's son, on the board of directors of Burisma, a large Ukrainian gas company.
"The Democrats' impeachment inquiry is not the organic outgrowth of serious misconduct; it is an orchestrated campaign to upend our political system," the Republicans wrote. "The Democrats are trying to impeach a duly elected president based on the accusations and assumptions of unelected bureaucrats who disagreed with President Trump's policy initiatives and processes."
The report also says Trump did "nothing inherently improper" by involving his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine matters.
And the GOP continues to attack Schiff for holding the first phase of the impeachment inquiry behind closed doors in "his Capitol basement bunker," which the Republican report says did not give due process to Trump.
"This impeachment inquiry and the manner in which the Democrats are pursuing it sets a dangerous precedent," the Republicans wrote.
"The White House has signaled that it is willing to work with Democrats but President Trump cannot be faulted for declining to submit himself to the Democrats' star chamber. Even so, President Trump has been transparent with the American people about his actions, releasing documents and speaking publicly about the subject matter," the Republicans wrote.
