Impeachment Inquiry Against President Trump

Tuesday, September 24, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi launched an official impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. The inquiry stemmed from a call with the Ukrainian president in July. President Trump has been accused of pressuring Ukraine to get information on Joe Biden and if he used his power as the former vice president to cover up for his son’s endeavors in Ukraine. Pelosi stated that “the president must be held accountable” and that “no one is above the law.”

In August, a member of the intelligence community who has chosen to remain anonymous filed a whistleblower complaint, which was determined to be an “urgent concern” by the intelligence community inspector general.

The transcript was released Wednesday, September 25. It shows that Trump first said the United States does a lot for Ukraine, and then followed by asking the Ukranian president to “do us a favor.” The response from the general public has been that Trump’s comments in this phone call are threatening, and they are suggesting that Ukraine owes this investigation to the United States because we, as a country, have done a lot for them; however, the Ukrainian president, Mr. Volodymyr Zelensky, says, “we spoke about many things and so I think - you read it - that nobody pushed me,” but many see the phone conversation between President Trump and President Zelensky as complete proof that the president of the United States violated the law.

While it should be noted that the transcripts are “not verbatim,” President Trump admittedly spoke about former vice president Biden. “There is a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution, and a lot of people want to find out about that,” he said to Mr. Zelensky, possibly suggesting that Biden stopped a lawsuit against a company that his son worked for in 2015. President Zelensky was compliant with Trump’s wishes, saying that he would have his lawyers look into the situation.

Many people have said that this phone call is a clear breach of Mr. Trump’s constitutional obligations, but he insists that “it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call. No pressure, and unlike Joe Biden and his son, no quid pro quo." This investigation will continue as a consensus has not yet been reached; however, impeachment of a president is rare in the United States and has only happened twice to presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, and neither circumstance resulted in removal from office. In order to be impeached, a president must have committed one of the following crimes: “treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors,” but the big question here is whether or not Trump’s supporters will turn against him. Without that, there will likely be no impeachment. Regardless, this is a huge deal, and is something that everyone should pay close attention to.

By Sophia Sanders