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WASHINGTON -- Saying that the House impeachment inquiry had been "hasty, flawed and clearly undertaken under partisan pretenses," U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., on Tuesday called on his colleagues to dismiss the case against President Donald Trump and get back to work.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Boozman never mentioned the name of the accused, nor did he utter the word "Ukraine."

But he referred twice to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, suggesting that the Democrat from California had yielded to pressure from the most strident anti-Trump elements.

"Not even a year ago, Speaker Pelosi was still attempting to curtail the push for impeachment within her own party, arguing, and I quote, 'Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there's something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don't think we should go down that path,'" Boozman said.

"She was right. And this impeachment process has failed by each of these metrics. It has further divided the country," Boozman said. "The case is certainly not overwhelming. And it has been anything but bipartisan."

Boozman said he had fulfilled his "constitutional duty to serve as a juror in the impeachment trial with the seriousness and the attention it demands."

"Based on the work done by the House -- or, maybe more accurately, the work not done and inherently flawed and partisan nature of the product it presented to the Senate -- I was skeptical that it could prove its case and convince anybody apart from the president's longtime, most severe critics, that his behavior merited removal from office," he said. "After two weeks of the proceedings in the Senate, my assessment of the situation has not been swayed nor has it changed."

In the speech, Boozman warned that the partisan nature of Trump's impeachment "potentially sets the stage for more impeachments along strictly partisan lines -- a development that would be terrible for our country."

And he rejected claims that Republican lawmakers had engaged in a cover-up, saying the allegation "is wrong on the merits and further drags this process down into the rhetoric of partisan, political warfare."

Full story (subscription required): https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/feb/05/boozman-calls-case-against-president-pa/