Edited by: JV Staff
The full House of Representatives will vote this week on the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, addressing the White House argument that the probe has been illegitimate.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has scheduled a vote for Thursday, saying in a letter to fellow representatives that she wants to “eliminate any doubt” about the process.
Pelosi says the impeachment inquiry resolution will “affirm the ongoing and existing investigation … establish the procedures for hearings that are open to the American people … outlines procedures to transfer evidence to the Judiciary Committee … and sets forth due process rights for the president and his counsel.”
Trump and his Republican supporters have called the impeachment probe illegitimate because it is being held behind closed doors and the full House never voted for it. Pelosi says that argument “has no merit.”
There is no law saying the entire House has to approve an investigation and the majority party in control — currently the Democrats — set out the rules for an impeachment process.
Democrats are investigating whether Trump withheld badly needed aid to Ukraine in exchange for Zelinskiy’s public promise to investigate Democrats and the Bidens.
Trump insists there was no quid pro quo between him and Ukraine and has called his telephone call with Zelenskiy “perfect.”
But U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor testified last week the release of $391 million in U.S. military aid to Ukraine was directly linked to its willingness to open the U.S.-related political investigations Trump wanted.
Trump alleges that when Biden was U.S. vice president, he threatened to hold up loan guarantees to Ukraine unless a prosecutor stopped a corruption investigation into the gas company where Hunter Biden worked.
No evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens has surfaced, and the allegations of Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was based on a debunked conspiracy theory.
In previous impeachment inquiries, the House Judiciary Committee took the lead in investigating allegations and held impeachment hearings in public. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi designated the House Intelligence Committee the lead committee to investigate the allegations against Trump.
Due to the sensitive nature of the Intelligence Committee’s work, hearings are almost always held in private, behind the closed doors of a secure area known as the SCIF, or Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. SCIFs are very closely monitored and secured to ensure that the sensitive materials discussed within are not obtained by foreign governments or spies. (VOA)
