(Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said that it is because of fraud within the Department of Justice (DOJ), not fraud by President Donald Trump, that they are debating articles of impeachment during Thursday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing.



“We're here because of fraud, not by the president, but from within the Department of Justice,” Gohmert said.







“And I realize people on the other side of the aisle have been so busy trying to find some kind of charge, criminal charge to bring against the president - none of which worked - that they may not have been aware of the most recent Horowitz report, but it is clear now … that the whole investigation that has brought us here with crime after crime being alleged and then having to be dropped was a fraudulent effort before the FISA court to have a surveillance warrant done against Carter Page,” he said.



“They lied initially, said that he was a Russian agent, when actually he had been used by the CIA as a spy against Russia, and so they lied,” the congressman said. “It was fraudulent, and there hopefully, people that will answer for their crimes and their fraud in the Department of Justice in the days to come, and it sounds like that should be the case.”



“There was fraud all the way through, but for three years we have been hearing about the crimes of the candidate Trump and then the crimes of President Trump, and we come now today based on the initial fraud that got this whole impeachment stuff started, and no one on the other side is willing to acknowledge the fraud that brought us here, nor the fact that 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,” he said.



The congressman took House Democrats to task for not including the crimes that President Donald Trump is alleged to have committed in the articles of impeachment, “because they don’t exist.”



“Why aren't they in this impeachment document? Because they don't exist. They've been disproven over and over and over again, and that's why the gentleman's amendment is so well taken. You don't want to go down this ground,” Gohmert said.



“I think it's a bad idea when it was proposed before - high crimes and misdemeanors, if it's not treason, even misdemeanors are crimes. So we've had to drop the fraud of all the crimes being alleged, people saying in here and in the public gee, we are going to get the president because he colluded with Russia. How terrible was that? That's all been disproved and dropped. So now we were left with bribery and extortion, and now where even those had to be dropped, because there were no crimes,” he said.



“I appreciate the gentleman bringing up crimes but those are not alleged here. Let me just say this is a day that will live in infamy for the judiciary committee. The days of exemplary chairs like Daniel Webster when he stood for principle, those are going to be gone, because this became a tool of the majority to try to defeat, use taxpayer funds, to defeat a president,” the congressman said.



Gohmert also noted that the Clinton impeachment and the Nixon impeachment were all held in public view, compared to the Democrats’ efforts to impeach Trump.







“And by the way, the Ken Starr report 36 boxes, he came in and testified. We were kept out of hearing the witnesses. There were in the Watergate, these witnesses testified on television. It was public. It was not a star chamber like the Schiff chamber became,” he said.