House Launches Impeachment Inquiry Against Donald Trump Following Ukraine Call

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi moved forward today with the formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s alleged effort to involve a foreign power in an investigation of a political rival. The decision capped a dramatic turn of events and followed Pelosi’s meeting with Democratic members of the House.

“The President must be held accountable…no one is above the law,” Pelosi said during a news conference.

Pelosi recounted the Founding Fathers announcement that they had crafted a Constitution. She said the people gathered and asked if the Founders had formed a republic or a monarchy.

Pelosi said, “Ben Franklin answered, ‘A republic, if you can keep it.’ Our responsibility is to keep it.”

For months Pelosi resisted calls for an impeachment inquiry, but the tipping point appeared to come after a whistleblower complaint filed by a U.S. Intelligence officer reporting that Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a July phone call to investigate former Vice-President, Joe Biden, a leading Democratic Presidential candidate and his son.

As the push grew for an inquiry, Trump reversed course and agreed to release the transcript of the call. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump asked Zelensky at least eight times to work with his personal attorney to investigate the Bidens.

Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight Committee and a frequent target of President Trump, tweeted his approval of the impeachment inquiry.

Cummings tweeted, “When the history books are written about this tumultuous era, I want them to show that I was among those in the House of Representatives who stood up to lawlessness and tyranny.”

Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s President occurred on July 25 which coincided with Robert Mueller’s, former Special Counsel for the Russia investigation, testimony before Congress.  The Russian investigation focused on allegations that the President and his campaign staff conspired with the Russians to influence the 2016 election and Trump obstructed justice in the aftermath. Mueller declined to indict the 45^th President, but he also said, “If we could have exonerated the President, we would have.”

Calls for impeachment accompanied the completion of Mueller’s report, but Speaker Pelosi refused to proceed. She also seemed reluctant to pursue an impeachment inquiry connected to the Ukrainian call until today.

Pelosi said the President is being investigated for “betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.”  One hundred sixty-nine of the 235 House Democrats support impeaching Trump.

President Trump called the inquiry “ridiculous” and “a witch hunt.”