On Tuesday September 24, Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives announced that the House would initiate a formal impeachment inquiry against President Trump. Trump is being charged with betraying his oath of office by abusing his power as President and attempting to coerce a foreign power to do something that would benefit him during re-election. More specifically, the White House released a transcript of a call with Ukraine’s President Zelensky. This call made evident that Trump asked President Zelensky to investigate the Biden’s as a favor. Trump did not promise anything in return for this favor but, throughout the call he continually emphasized how good the U.S has been toward Ukraine.
The House of Representatives has been hearing from multiple witnesses, most of who are not defending the President’s actions. Fiona Hill, the president’s former top adviser on Russia, was the first White House official to cooperate in the impeachment investigation. Hill testified privately, therefore we are not able to see verbatim what she told the investigators. However, we did learn that she was excluded from discussing Ukraine foreign policy which was initially supposed to be her job. There was another foreign policy that was directed by Gordon Sondland, the U.S ambassador to the European Union. President Trump gave Sondland the task of working on Ukraine foreign policy and pushing Trump’s agenda. Gordon Sondland testified before investigators and states that he hesitantly participated in the president’s efforts to discuss Ukraine foreign policy through Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani was driven to get the Ukrainian government to investigate Trump’s political rivals, Joe Biden as well as his son Hunter Biden.
The outcome of the impeachment inquiry is still uncertain; one can acknowledge that Donald Trump could very possibly become the fourth president in U.S history to face impeachment. As American citizens it is important for us to pay attention to current events, especially something as major as impeachment. News articles discussing the impeachment inquiry are published almost every day and I encourage you to follow the story as new developments are made.