Democrats eye Trump impeachment charges this week

Democrats in the House of Representatives were drafting articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Sunday, according to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, who said his committee could hold a vote on impeachment this week but added that the panel will not decide on the charges against Trump until after a hearing on Monday to consider evidence gathered by the House Intelligence Committee.

That panel's chairman, Adam Schiff, said on Sunday that it was best to focus charges that could stick.

(SOUND BITE) (ENGLISH) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE ADAM SCHIFF, SAYING:

"It's always been my strategy to charge those that there is the strongest and most overwhelming evidence and not try to charge everything, even if you could charge other things."

Judiciary Committee Democrats worked through the weekend poring over information from the Intelligence Committee and the constitutional law scholars who testified on Wednesday.

(SOUND BITE) (English) PROFESSOR MICHAEL GERHARDT, SAYING:

"If Congress fails to impeach here, then the impeachment process has lost all meaning."

The Judiciary Committee is considering articles of impeachment that would accuse Trump of abuse of power in his dealings with Ukraine and obstruction of Congress for refusing to cooperate with Congress.

But the committee still needs to settle the question of whether to draft a third article alleging obstruction of justice based on the report from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Some House Democrats have expressed misgivings about supporting a charge of obstruction of justice based on the Mueller report, and Nadler indicated on Sunday that his committee might be leaning away from basing a separate article of impeachment on the Russia investigation.