Trump Impeachment: How It Started, and Why It’s Important
House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, announced on September 24th that the House of Representatives would launch an impeachment inquiry that could lead to President Trump’s removal from office. This major announcement was made in light of Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.
The impeachment inquiry refers back to Rudy Giuliani’s investigation of former Vice President, Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and his issues in the Ukraine. The investigation was meant to determine if Hunter Biden had violated any of Ukraine’s laws. It was found that Hunter Biden had not violated any laws during his communications with the Ukraine. On July 25th, Trump met with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and suggested that the Ukraine needed to look further into Hunter Biden. On the 28th of August, Politico revealed that Trump had threatened withholding military aid from Ukraine.
On September 9th, the Inspector General told the House Intelligence Committee that a whistle blower complaint had been filed and linked to Ukraine. The complaint was filed because of a promise that was made to the Ukraine if they looked into Hunter Biden. On the 23rd of September, Trump admitted to making said promise, but took it back hours later. The same day, Trump and Zelenskiy both said that there was no pressure or promise made. A day later, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House was going to start an impeachment inquiry, launching a formal investigation on the President. The inquiry resulted in mixed responses from both government officials and the public. Many were in support of Trump’s possible impeachment while others claimed that there is not enough evidence to prove that Trump broke the law. On the 25th, Trump released an unclassified transcript of the conversation from July.
Many began to point out that there was sufficient evidence to impeach Trump, but others felt that his actions were not worthy of impeachment. A day after the release of the document above, the White House released the first whistle blower complaint. In the complaint, the person said that they were concerned about the fact that there is restricted access to records of the call. A second whistle blower came forward, reporting that they knew what was said during the July phone call.
The evidence makes this impeachment inquiry incredibly important because of how different it is compared to other impeachments in American history. Investigators have begun to call witnesses that are not usually involved in cases like this. With other impeachments, they relied heavily upon witnesses instead of transcripts. The most recent impeachment dealt with things outside of the government. A famous example of impeachment was that of former President Bill Clinton. His trial dealt more with his sexual harassment complaint and lying under oath. Trump’s impeachment inquiry, however, deals with the way that Trump is running things instead of something personal that he did outside of the White House.
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Transcript Whistle blower