UPDATE :
1 – Rudy Giuliani, has been subpoenaed by the Intel Committee in relation to his role over Ukraine’s investigation and President Donald Trump. How will he defend his actions?
2 – Secreatry of State, Mike Pompeo was part of the phone conversation between Trump and Zelensky. Democrats are requesting soon more information that was apparently “hidden” by White House officials.
3 – According to the New York Times, Donald Trump “pushed Australia’s PM to help Attorney General William Barr in an investigation to rebut the Mueller inquiry”.
PELOSI AND THE AGREEMENT WITH THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OVER IMPEACHMENT
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced the establishment of a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump on Tuesday afternoon. While Pelosi has been resistant to open the formal inquiry, the administration’s refusal to hand over a whistleblower complaint and information for other investigations has forced her hand.
In front of the capitol, Pelosi announced, “Today, I’m announcing the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry— the action taken to date by the president appears to violate the constitution.” She closed the announcement by insisting that the president “must be held accountable — no one is above the law.”
In addition, she also announced that she had direct six House committees, who had already been investigating the president, to continue their inquiry “under that umbrella of impeachment inquiry.
Many House Democrats have been tepid at best over opening the formal inquiry, however, with President Trump’s alleged pressuring of a foreign leader to investigate a political opponent has turned up the heat. The incident in question is a July phone call to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where he discussed Joe Biden in the context of fighting “corruption” in the country.
In addition, prior to the phone call, the president directed his acting chief of staff to hold off on sending nearly $400 million in military aid to the Ukraine.
The president’s personal lawyer and former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, has been accusing Biden of pushing dismissal of a Ukrainian prosecutor to benefit his son while he was in office as Vice President. However, many believed the prosecutor was corrupt and no actual evidence of wrongdoing on Biden’s part yet to be found.
While the transcript of the phone call has yet to be released, which is an aspect of the whistleblower complaint, President Trump did say that it would be released. On Twitter Tuesday afternoon the president said, “You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call. No pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo!”
However, simply releasing the transcript no longer seems like it will be enough to satisfy Democrats demand for the whistleblower complaint in its entirety. Democratic Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Adam Schiff, says that the whistleblower will be testifying before his committee. Schiff also tweeted that the testimony could happen “as soon as this week…”
