Post by Admin on Sept 26, 2019 8:07:17 GMT
Democrats vow impeachment proceedings, sort of. In the wake of Monday reporting that Donald Trump blocked military aid to Ukraine before asking its president to investigate the son of a potential 2020 rival, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gathered her caucus behind closed doors on Tuesday — then emerged to declare that Democrats would move forward with "an official impeachment inquiry."
It's not clear what comes next. "It's hard to say" whether Pelosi's announcement will actually change anything that the House is doing about impeaching Trump, one Democratic lawmaker told Defense One's Katie Bo Williams. "Only time will tell." Read on, here.
Pelosi to reporters: "The actions of the Trump presidency revealed the dishonorable fact of the president's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections."
That followed an already-eventful day in which:
Trump gave the most nationalist of his three addresses to the UN General Assembly.
He promised to release "a transcript" of his July 25 phone call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Senate passed — by unanimous, bipartisan consent — a resolution pressing his administration to release a whistleblower report connected to Trump's Ukraine dealings.
Understanding what happened in Ukraine. Several organizations have assembled timelines to help, including the Washington Post (focused on diplomatic events), Lawfare (focused on how Trump's team and right-wing media pushed alternate versions of events), and Just Security (currently the most comprehensive).
What does Trump say about all this? The impeachment inquiry is "PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!," he tweeted, using a go-to phrase.
So why did he withhold the aid? Trump has offered at least two explanations at odds with each other, as shown in a short CNN video. On Monday, he said he was trying to prevent corruption; on Tuesday, he said it was because other countries were not giving enough aid to Ukraine.
BREAKING: Transcript, released: On Wednesday morning, the White House released what it calls a transcript of Trump's July 25 phone call with Zelensky. (Note: this president and his administration have a long track record of doctoring the truth.)Later today: Trump is to hold a long-planned meeting with the Ukrainian leader in New York City, on the UN General Assembly sidelines.
Beyond that? Unclear. Pelosi released neither a timeline, a bill of charges, or even hints about what existing or new House committee might handle impeachment proceedings. The New York Times overview of how impeachment generally works.
A taxonomy of impeachment charges. Lawfare's Susan Hennessey, Quinta Jurecic, and Benjamin Wittes describe the various kinds of things Trump might plausibly be charged with, including "abuse of the president's foreign policy authorities and misuse of congressionally appropriated money to induce a foreign head of state to violate the civil liberties of U.S. persons and interfere in a presidential election."
Their recommendations: steer clear of things that have other remedies than impeachment. On emoluments, for example, they note that Congress could pass a law to prevent foreign money from flowing to Trump via hotel stays. Read on, here.
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