It seems that every time you look at the news these days you see breaking news about impeachment, information pertaining to the proceedings, foreign affair scandals and more insider whistleblower complaints. With all the new information being released daily, it can be hard to keep everything straight. That’s why we’re here to lay out an exact timeline of the process of impeachment so far.
But, before diving into the deep stuff, let’s first go over what exactly impeachment means. The word has been thrown around for years, not only concerning the Trump presidency, but also past presidents including Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon. So, here’s a break-down of exactly of what impeachment is and what it entails.
The impeachment process is a procedure incorporated into the United States Constitution that permits the removal of any President, Vice President, or other Civil Officers that have been, “…engaged in treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” (Impeachment) What this means is that when a person high-up in power (like our dear-ole-prez Trump) commits a crime, (like maybe accepting foreign favors for personal gain) it is the responsibility of the representatives in the House to decide whether the impeachment proceedings will continue to the Senate. For an impeachment to occur, a two thirds majority of the Senate must vote for it. The punishment for impeachment may vary on the offense. The Constitution states that when someone is impeached, the convicted may be removed from office, but that isn’t always the case.
Now that we’ve provided a little breakdown on the impeachment process, let us take a deep-dive into the timeline of our current president’s pending impeachment and all of the ~juicy~ news that has come out since that oh-so-important call in July.
July 25th
The day of the deed. On this day in history, President Trump gave the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, a ring-a-ding-ding. Now, according to a transcript of the call, the two men weren’t just gossiping about neighborhood news, but rather making requests to each other. What began as a congratulatory call to President Zelensky, developed into Trump requesting that Zelensky and his Ukrainian officials investigate Joe Biden and his son. This was after a conversation about what the United States is “doing” for Ukraine and its success as a country. Joe Biden is not only the previous Vice President, under President Obama, but he also happens to be the front runner in the democratic debate (aka Trump’s main rival for the 2020 election).
August 12th
And so, the whistle blows. A whistleblower came forward to report a concern to the inspector general, Michael Atkinson.
September 9th
Three House chairmen announced that they will be conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the relationship between Trump, his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Ukraine.
September 24th
The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, announced that the House will begin an impeachment inquiry into President Trump. This comes after months of debate behind closed doors, as well as back and forth between the White House and Capitol Hill.
September 25th
The public is allowed a glimpse into what this impeachment is all about when the Department of Justice released a five-page summary of the conversation between Trump and Zelensky.
September 26th
The original whistleblower complaint is released and leads to public outcry that President Trump, used the power of his office for person gain. It was explained by the director of national intelligence that the whistleblower complaint was delayed due to “executive privilege,” which protects the privacy of communications with the President.
October 3rd
After investigation, House democrats released a series of text messages between *the special envoy to Ukraine, American diplomats in Ukraine, the U.S. Ambassador to the E.U., Trump’s personal lawyer and the advisory to the Ukranian President. The text messages revealed that the White House offered military aid and a White House visit as motivation for Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son.
October 6th
A second whistleblower came forward in relation to the already proceeding investigation against President Trump. It was confirmed that the second whistleblower came forward with knowledge about allegations within the first whistleblower complaint.
October 17th
White House chief of staff Mark Mulvaney admitted that Trump withheld funds from Ukraine until it moved to investigate a conspiracy revolving around the 2016 election. Mulvaney defended Trump, saying, “Get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy.”
What does it all mean?
Okay, now take a breath. I know that was a lot. Like, a LOT. Now, don’t worry because there is more to come. Everyday we see more information coming out about the impeachment, more people involved and more suspicious activity that’s been going on in White House. No one is sure of what is to come in 2020, but one thing is for certain: this story will keep developing.