re: Swallowswell listing out crimes Trump allegedly committed

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Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who had participated in those hearings, attempted to sneak in the accusation during the Judiciary Committee’s markup of the articles, after Republicans pointed out that the articles did not accuse the president of breaking any laws.

"Since my colleagues keep bringing up what potential crimes you could charge a president with, let’s go through some of them, because President Trump’s conduct overlaps with criminal acts,” Swalwell said.

“Let’s start with criminal bribery,” he added, proceeding to lay out the elements of the crime as defined by federal law.

Later, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) echoed Swalwell’s point about “bribery.”

But Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) wasn’t having it.

“So many people here have been screaming about the president’s crimes, and we’re even hearing today — like we just did — ‘Oh, yes, there were crimes.’ Then why aren’t they in this impeachment document?” It’s because they don’t exist.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) likewise called out Swalwell’s effort to allege crimes that were not, in fact, in the articles.

“I heard earlier, my friend from California, Mr. Swalwell, list out all these crimes. If i’m watching at home i’m thinking, well, where are they in the impeachment? That is just a Democrat ‘drive-by,’ to go and list crimes that you don’t allege and that you don’t have evidence for.”

He added: “[T]hey’re naming crimes in debate that they don’t even have in their impeachment resolution because they can’t prove them, because there are no underlying facts.” He accused Democrats of playing “pin the tail on your favorite impeachment theory,” because none of their allegations could be proven on its own.

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, a reported asked Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) why she had not included “bribery” in the articles of impeachment after accusing the president of bribery for weeks.

Her answer: “I’m not a lawyer.”

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