Herrera Beutler votes against impeachment of President Trump

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, joined all of her Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives voting against two articles of impeachment Wednesday.

The congresswoman’s vote was not unexpected. She’d announced in a statement last week that she was planning to vote no on both articles — one charging President Donald Trump with obstruction of Congress, the other with abusing his power — pointing to a rapid pace set by Democratic leadership that she said prevented a full airing of the facts.

“The obstruction of Congress article is the least credible of the two,” Herrera Beutler said in a media release Friday, going on to say that Trump has the right to seek judicial review on whether the House can compel members of his inner circle, like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, to testify. Trump, stonewalling the investigation, had instructed his top officials to ignore congressional subpoenas.

Moving forward with impeachment before the court decides whether the House subpoenas are valid, Herrera Beutler said, is the fault of “the rushed timeline for this process set by House Democratic leadership.”

“The White House asking a court to settle a dispute is not an impeachable act,” she said.

Without testimony from these officials, Herrera Beutler continued, the charge of whether the president abused his power for personal gain when he unilaterally withheld $391 million in aid from Ukraine can’t be proven.

“Efforts to prove the president’s motives have been defeated by the lack of firsthand testimony,” the congresswoman said.