Impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump

See also: Second impeachment of Donald Trump
Further information: First impeachment of Donald Trump and First impeachment trial of Donald Trump

Impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump
Open hearing testimony of Fiona Hill and David Holmes on November 21, 2019
AccusedDonald Trump, 45th President of the United States
ProponentsNancy Pelosi
(Speaker of the House of Representatives)
Committees
Committee chairs
DateSeptember 24 – December 3, 2019 (2 months, 1 week and 2 days)
OutcomeImpeachment inquiry completed; House Judiciary Committee approved two articles of impeachment
Charges
CauseAllegations that Trump sought help from Ukrainian authorities to favor him in the 2020 U.S. presidential election
Congressional votes
Voting in the House Judiciary Committee
AccusationFirst article—abuse of power
Votes in favor23
Votes against17
ResultApproved
AccusationSecond article—obstruction of Congress
Votes in favor23
Votes against17
ResultApproved
The House voted on December 18, 2019, to impeach Donald Trump on both charges.
Trump–Ukraine scandal
A request by U.S. President Donald Trump (right) to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (left) to investigate Joe Biden and his son sparked the scandal.
Events
List
People
White House
Justice Department
State Department
Defense Department
National Security Council
Intelligence
Congress
Ukrainians
Surrogates
Scholars
Related
Companies
List
Conspiracy theories
List

The inquiry process which preceded the first impeachment of Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States, was initiated by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on September 24, 2019,[1] after a whistleblower alleged that Donald Trump may have abused the power of the presidency. Trump was accused of withholding military aid as a means of pressuring newly elected president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to pursue investigations of Joe Biden and his son Hunter[a] and to investigate a conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind interference in the 2016 presidential election.[3] More than a week after Trump had put a hold on the previously approved aid,[4][b] he made these requests in a July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president,[6] which the whistleblower said was intended to help Trump's reelection bid.[3]

Believing critical military aid would be revoked, Zelenskyy made plans to announce investigations into the Bidens on the September 13 episode of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS.[5] After Trump was told of the whistleblower complaint in late August[7] and elements of the events had begun to leak, the aid was released on September 11 and the planned interview was cancelled.[5] Trump declassified a non-verbatim summary of the call on September 24,[6][8] the day the impeachment inquiry began. The whistleblower's complaint was given to Congress the following day and subsequently released to the public.[9] The White House corroborated several of the allegations, including that a record of the call between Trump and Zelenskyy had been stored in a highly restricted system in the White House normally reserved for classified information.[10][11]

In October, three congressional committees (Intelligence, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs) deposed witnesses including Ukraine ambassador Bill Taylor,[12] Laura Cooper (the top Pentagon official overseeing Ukraine-related U.S. policy),[13] and former White House official Fiona Hill.[14] Witnesses testified that they believed Trump wanted Zelenskyy to publicly announce investigations into the Bidens and Burisma (a Ukrainian natural gas company on whose board Hunter Biden had served)[5][15] and 2016 election interference.[16] On October 8, in a letter from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to House Speaker Pelosi, the White House officially responded that it would not cooperate with the investigation due to concerns including that there had not yet been a vote of the full House of Representatives and that interviews of witnesses were being conducted privately.[17][18] On October 17, White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney responded to a reporter's allegation of quid pro quo saying: "We do that all the time with foreign policy. Get over it." He walked back his comments later, asserting that there had been "absolutely no quid pro quo" and that Trump had withheld military aid to Ukraine over concerns of the country's corruption.[19][20]

On October 31, the House of Representatives voted 232–196 to establish procedures for public hearings,[21] which started on November 13.[22] As hearings began, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Trump may have committed bribery, which is listed in Article Two as an impeachable offense.[23][24][25] Private and public congressional testimony by twelve government witnesses in November 2019 presented evidence that Trump demanded political favors in exchange for official action.[26][27][28][29] On December 10, the House Judiciary Committee unveiled their articles of impeachment: one for abuse of power and one for obstruction of Congress.[30][31] Three days later, the Judiciary Committee voted along party lines (23–17) to approve both articles.[32] On December 16, the House Judiciary Committee released a report specifying criminal bribery and wire fraud charges as part of the abuse of power charge.[33] On December 18, the House voted mostly along party lines to impeach the president on both charges. The vote on Article One, abuse of power, was 230–197, with one vote of present. All Republicans voted against the article, joined by two Democrats. The vote on Article Two, obstruction of Congress, was 229–198, with one vote of present. All Republicans voted against the article, joined by three Democrats.[34][35][36] Recent Republican, five-term Congressman Justin Amash of Michigan, also voted for impeachment; the frequent Trump critic had declared himself an Independent in July.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference NBC News n1058251 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Dibble, Madison (November 20, 2019). "Sondland: Trump only wanted Ukraine to announce investigation into Biden, not start real inquiry". Washington Examiner. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  3. ^ a b Carter, Brandon (September 26, 2019). "READ: House Intel Committee Releases Whistleblower Complaint On Trump-Ukraine Call". NPR.org. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  4. ^ Ballhaus, Rebecca; Restuccia, Andrew; Hughes, Siobhan (September 24, 2019). "Trump Put Hold on Military Aid Ahead of Phone Call With Ukraine's President". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d Kramer, Andrew E. (November 7, 2019). "Ukraine's Zelensky Bowed to Trump's Demands, Until Luck Spared Him". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. OCLC 1645522. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
  6. ^ a b "Telephone Conversation with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine" (PDF). whitehouse.gov. September 24, 2019. Retrieved December 10, 2019 – via National Archives.
  7. ^ Schmidt, Michael S.; Barnes, Julian E.; Haberman, Maggie (November 26, 2019). "Trump Knew of Whistle-Blower Complaint When He Released Aid to Ukraine". The New York Times. ISSN 1553-8095. OCLC 1645522.
  8. ^ Bajak, Frank (October 17, 2019). "Why Trump asked Ukraine's president about 'CrowdStrike'". Associated Press News. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
  9. ^ Mangan, Dan (September 26, 2019). "An alleged cover-up, a secret server and more bombshells in Trump whistleblower complaint". CNBC. Retrieved September 28, 2019.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Brown27 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Miller28 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Becket, Stefan; Farhi, Arden; Watson, Kathryn (October 23, 2019). "Top diplomat tells lawmakers Ukraine aid was directly tied to investigations". CBS News. Archived from the original on November 8, 2019. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
  13. ^ Moe, Alex; Shabad, Rebecca (October 23, 2019). "Key Pentagon official finally testifies after Republicans storm impeachment hearing". NBC News. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Demirjian 2019-10-14 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Kramer, Andrew E. (October 24, 2019). "The Cost of Trump's Aid Freeze in the Trenches of Ukraine's War". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. OCLC 1645522. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference bade was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ "White House 'will not co-operate with impeachment inquiry'". BBC News. October 9, 2019. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  18. ^ Blake, Aaron (October 9, 2019). "The White House's scathing and legally dubious impeachment letter, annotated". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 2269358. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
  19. ^ Becket, Stefan; Segers, Grace; Watson, Kathryn (October 18, 2019). "Mulvaney links delay in Ukraine aid to DOJ investigation into 2016—live updates". CBS News. Archived from the original on October 29, 2019. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference getoverit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ "Trump impeachment: House votes to formalise inquiry". BBC News. October 31, 2019. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference beginning was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ Melber, Ari (October 20, 2019). "Perspective | 'Bribery' is right there in the Constitution. Trump could be impeached for that". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 2269358. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
  24. ^ Budryk, Zack (November 12, 2019). "Schiff: Trump could be impeached for bribery". The Hill. Peter Greenberger. ISSN 1521-1568. OCLC 1099162161.
  25. ^ Taylor, Jessica (November 12, 2019). "Rep. Adam Schiff: Trump's Potentially Impeachable Offenses Include Bribery". NPR.org.
  26. ^ Krawczyk, Kathryn (November 20, 2019). "Sondland confirms 'quid pro quo', points finger directly at Trump". The Week. United States: Adam Dub. ISSN 1533-8304. OCLC 45905750.
  27. ^ Budryk, Zack (October 30, 2019). "Vindman testified he believed Trump demanded quid pro quo for Ukrainian aid: report". The Hill. Peter Greenberger. ISSN 1521-1568. OCLC 1099162161.
  28. ^ Jalonick, Marcy Clare; Tucker, Eric (November 6, 2019). "Diplomat William Taylor Had 'Clear Understanding' of Ukraine Quid Pro Quo: Transcript". Time. New York, NY. Associated Press. ISSN 0040-781X. OCLC 1311479. Archived from the original on November 6, 2019.
  29. ^ Krawczyk, Kathryn (November 21, 2019). "Trump's 'no quid pro quo' defense takes yet another hit". The Week. United States: Adam Dub. ISSN 1533-8304. OCLC 45905750.
  30. ^ Read the Articles of Impeachment Against President Trump (The New York Times, published December 10, 2019, updated December 13, 2019)
  31. ^ Wagner, Meg (December 10, 2019). "Live updates: Articles of impeachment against Trump unveiled—CNNPolitics". CNN. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  32. ^ Siegel, Benjamin; Faulders, Katherine (December 13, 2019). "House Judiciary Committee passes articles of impeachment against President Trump". ABC News. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
  33. ^ "Democrats accuse Trump of criminal bribery, wire fraud in report that explains articles of impeachment". The Washington Post. December 16, 2019. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
  34. ^ Segers, Grace; Watson, Kathryn; Becket, Stefan (October 31, 2019). "House approves impeachment rules, ushering in new phase of inquiry—live updates". CBS News. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
  35. ^ Shear, Michael D.; Baker, Peter (December 19, 2019). "Trump Impeachment Vote Live Updates: House Votes to Impeach Trump for Abuse of Power". The New York Times.
  36. ^ Watson, Kathryn (December 19, 2019). "How members of Congress voted on the impeachment of President Trump". CBS News. Retrieved January 11, 2020.


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