Schiff says impeachment worth it even if Trump is not removed

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told NPR that the impeachment inquiry would be worth it regardless of whether President Trump is successfully removed from office.

“If [impeachment] deters further presidential misconduct, then it may provide some remedy even in the absence of a conviction in the Senate,” Schiff told NPR’s Steve Inskeep in an interview scheduled to air Wednesday.

{mosads}”I don’t think any decision has been made on the ultimate question about whether articles of impeachment should be brought. That will be the purpose of these hearings and the subsequent work done in the Judiciary Committee,” Schiff said.

“But on the basis of what the witnesses have had to say so far, there are any number of potentially impeachable offenses: including bribery, including high crimes and misdemeanors,” he added. “The basic allegations against the president are that he sought foreign interference in a U.S. election, that he conditioned official acts on the performance of these political favors.”

Schiff added that as the inquiry transitions from closed-door depositions to public hearings, the House continues to pursue “an array of documentary evidence” and said that much of the evidence House Democrats are seeking has been withheld by the White House.

The Intelligence Committee chairman also addressed defenders of Trump who have noted that regardless of whether Trump attempted to condition military aid to Ukraine on an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, the aid was eventually released without such an investigation being announced.

“If the president solicited foreign help in the U.S. election, if the president conditioned official acts on the performance of these political favors, whether Ukraine ever had to go through with it really doesn’t matter,” Schiff told Inskeep. “What matters is, did the president attempt to commit acts that ought to result in his removal from office?”