Whether or not one agrees that President Trump merits impeachment, it is demonstrably false that concerns about his dealings with Ukraine are merely a left-wing hit job.

Sixteen of the top right-leaning lawyers in the country have released a statement fully supporting a thorough impeachment inquiry into what they call “clear” evidence that “the president is abusing the office of the presidency for personal political objectives.”

The group, a loose affiliation called “Checks & Balances,” laid out a series of undisputed facts, and then wrote this:

“We believe the acts revealed publicly over the past several weeks are fundamentally incompatible with the president’s oath of office, his duties as commander in chief, and his constitutional obligation to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ These acts, based on what has been revealed to date, are a legitimate basis for an expeditious impeachment investigation, vote in the House of Representatives and potential trial in the Senate.”

All of the signatories are conservative or libertarian, and most are far from Bush-establishment moderates. Marisa Maleck clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Charles Fried was President Ronald Reagan’s solicitor general. Paul Rosenzweig is a favorite of the conservative Heritage Foundation. Jonathan Adler is one of the leading conservative law professors in the land, as is Orin Kerr. Peter Keisler was a co-founder of the Federalist Society, a clerk for Judge Robert Bork, and a veteran of the Reagan White House. And so on.

These are not agents of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. These are not supporters of Joe Biden. These are not “squishes” or McCainiacs or Romneyites. These are serious conservatives who know the Constitution backward and forward.

And this is what they conclude:

We have not just a political candidate open to receiving foreign assistance to better his chances at winning an election, but a current president openly and privately calling on foreign governments to actively interfere in the most sacred of U.S. democratic processes, our elections. These activities, which are factually undisputed, undermine the integrity of our elections, endanger global U.S. security and defense partnerships, and threaten our democracy.

Again, it is one thing to decide that removal from office isn’t warranted, or to argue that, with an election next year, it would be better to let the voters decide. It is quite another thing to allege, as House Republican leaders have done dishonestly, that there are no valid concerns at all, and that the whole inquiry is “beyond a witch hunt” with “zero facts and zero evidence” of questionable behavior by the president.

As the conservative lawyers explain, Trump has entered some very rocky territory. Serious legislators have a duty to express concern about potential impropriety, to press for facts to come out, and to withhold judgment until the evidence is in.