Update, Sept. 26, 2019:
The White House released the full whistleblower complaint that set off the launch of the impeachment inquiry. According to the complaint, the president used his power to “solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.” The whistleblower also stated that the White House made attempts to cover up the incident. The complaint is dated Aug. 12, 2019.
The White House also released an unclassified transcript of a phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky. According to the transcript, Trump insisted to Zelensky to launch an investigation into Joe Biden.
“The other thing, There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great,” Trump said in the call. “Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.”
On Sept. 26, Joseph Maguire, the Acting Director of National Intelligence, testified before Congress about his handling of the complaint against the President. During his testimony, Maguire defended the actions of the whistleblower, as well as his own.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday the opening of a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. According to Pelosi, Trump had violated the Constitution in seeking help from Ukraine to hurt Democratic opponent Joe Biden.
“The actions of the Trump presidency revealed (the) dishonorable fact of the president’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections,” Pelosi said in a brief statement.
“Therefore, today I’m announcing the House of Representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry.”
Pelosi spoke after meeting fellow members of the Democratic House caucus, where impeachment calls are surging despite concerns by leadership that the move could hurt their chances in the 2020 election.
The announcement was sparked by a scandal over Trump’s reported attempt to pressure the incoming president of Ukraine to open a corruption investigation into the Democratic frontrunner, Joe Biden, and Biden’s son Hunter.
Triggering the confrontation was a secret whistleblower complaint centered on Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The White House has refused to release to Congress the secret complaint from an intelligence community whistleblower that reportedly depicts Trump seeking help from Ukraine to fight Biden.
Trump has admitted he spoke to Zelensky about Biden in the call and said Tuesday he had halted aid to the country temporarily, before it was unfrozen last week.
However, he rejected charges that the two were tied, saying the aid freeze was to prod European countries to increase their support for the Ukraine government.
Pelosi initially had been stiffly resisting impeachment, hoping to keep the focus on capturing the Senate and White House in 2020. However, after seven moderate Democrats declared themselves in support of a full-blown impeachment probe late Monday, analysts counted at least 170 of the party’s 235 House members in support.
“I was there… in the ’90s when we wrote the whistleblower laws and continued to write them to ensure the security of our intelligence and the safety of our whistleblowers,” Pelosi said.
“I can say with authority, the Trump administration’s actions undermine both our national security and our intelligence and our protections of the whistleblowers, more than both.”
