FILE PHOTO: Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., talks during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on the constitutional grounds for the impeachment of President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019.
Alex Brandon / AP Photo
Alex Brandon / AP Photo
FILE PHOTO: Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., talks during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on the constitutional grounds for the impeachment of President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019.
Alex Brandon / AP Photo
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., talks during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on the constitutional grounds for the impeachment of President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Pennsylvania has three U.S. Representatives on the House Judiciary Committee, where lawmakers heard testimony Wednesday from legal experts about whether President Donald Trump’s actions, as detailed by the House Intelligence Committee, are impeachable. Reporter Laura Olsen put together this handy guide to who they are for The Morning Call.
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jonathan Tamari described the stakes of this latest phase of the impeachment inquiry. “If the House Intelligence Committee served as a fact-finding operation in leading the inquiry over the past several weeks, the Judiciary Committee is now charged with weighing those facts, deciding whether they warrant impeachment, and on what grounds,” he wrote.
U.S. Reps. Madeleine Dean and Mary Gay Scanlon, both Democrats from the Philly suburbs, serve on the committee. They were elected last year and supported an impeachment inquiry before the Ukraine scandal came to the public’s attention in September.
Wednesday’s hearing featured constitutional law experts. “What we saw this morning was really important, because it really brought home that the conduct we’re talking about with respect to this president is exactly what the framers of our Constitution were worried about,” Scanlon said. “They were worried about an executive who would abuse his office to try to get elected or to get re-elected.”
Dean, meanwhile, also mentioned the framers of the Constitution in her criticism of the president.
Scanlon put out a walk-and-talk video to emphasize that the impeachment isn’t the only thing happening in Washington, D.C. “We have votes every day down here,” Scanlon said, adding that she was “really excited” to vote on legislation to put new limits robocalls. That’s an effort by Scanlon to respond to Republican attacks that impeachment is stopping Congress from doing the people’s business.
U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, a Republican from southwestern Pennsylvania, also serves on the House Judiciary Committee. He called the proceeding a sham, and he unsuccessfully attempted to subpoena the whistleblower — a tactic that Republican lawmakers tried in the House Intelligence Committee last month. TribLIVE has the details on Reschenthaler’s move.
Also, The Morning Call’s Laura Olsen provided this break from the constitutional questions with this image: “In non-impeachment news, Politico reports PA’s@SenBobCasey was spotted at a DC indoor ax-throwing establishment called Kraken Axes, and provides this pic of him deeply contemplating his throw.:” she wrote. For more on the axe-throwing trend, Forbes has you covered.
Tom MacDonald / WHYY
Movita Johnson-Harrell, shown here while she was supervisor of the Philadelphia district attorney’s Victim/Witness Services unit. (Tom McDonald / WHYY)
Movita Johnson-Harrell, a West Philadelphia Democrat who was elected to the Pa. House of Representatives in March, faces charges of perjury, theft, tampering with public records, and related crimes, The Philadelphia Inquirer and others report. State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Johnson-Harrell allegedly used her nonprofit to steal more than $500,000.
Shapiro said the nonprofit was meant to help people with mental illness and drug addiction, but that Johnson-Harrell used it “as a personal piggy bank for extravagant trips, fur coats, Porsche payments, & more.”
Johnson-Harrell told Philadelphia Magazine that she “vigorously” disputes most of the allegations but intends “to accept responsibility for any wrongdoings that I have done before I took office.”
Shapiro said that he expects Johnson-Harrell to plead guilty and resign her seat. It’s a rapid fall for a politician who just 9 months ago became the first Muslim woman to serve as a state representative in Pennsylvania. She received national attention on the day she was sworn into office, as state Rep. Stephanie Borowicz, R-Clinton/Centre, mentioned Jesus 13 times during an invocation.
In the House, Johnson-Harrell was known for her advocacy on gun violence issues: She lost her father and a teenage son to gun violence, Alyssa Biederman reported for The Philadelphia Inquirer this summer. Earlier this year, she became a member of the state’s Special Council on Gun Violence, which is supposed to make its recommendations for reducing gun violence by April.
In the House, Johnson-Harrell replaced Vanessa Lowery Brown, who resigned after being convicted of bribery and related charges. Shapiro said Johnson-Harrell is the 60th public official his office has arrested since he took office in 2017, PennLive reported.
