Impeachment Update: What’s Coming?

Last week it came to light that Donald Trump had consulted with foreign powers, specifically Ukraine, to gain intel against Joe Biden, one of his opponents for the 2020 presidential election. But this is not even the worst of it — the White House then proceeded to attempt to cover up Trump’s offense. 

Following the claims of an anonymous whistleblower, Democrats in Congress, led by Nancy Pelosi, launched an impeachment inquiry against Trump. It is estimated that a vote to impeach could occur by mid-November. Pelosi has decided to instruct the House of Representatives to focus on the Ukraine scandal, rather than any other misdemeanors Trump may be accused of. 

If the House, which is currently led by Democrats, votes to approve articles of impeachment against Trump, the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, will decide whether or not Trump is guilty and will remove him from office if decided he is. If Trump were to be convicted, it would take a two-thirds vote of the Senate, or 67 votes out of the 100 Senate seats. That demand means that 20 Republican senators will have to cross party lines. 

The details of the memo from the call between Trump and the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, reveal that Trump asked for a “favor” from the President, as well as demanding that Zelenskiy speak to Trump’s lawyer Rudy Guiliani, and the attorney general William Barr. 

Opinion polls across the country have displayed growing support against Trump’s impeachment. To date, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were the only presidents to have been impeached, but both were acquitted by the Senate. Richard Nixon also faced threats of impeachment, but chose to resign rather than go through with the process.

This takes us to current events regarding Trump’s possible impeachment. On October 1st, the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, dismissed and ignored a summons from the Democratic Committee chairmen in the House for 5 current, as well as former, state department officials to testify on Trump’s attempt to push Zelenskiy to investigate Biden. 

Despite Pompeo’s dismissal, Kurt Volker, former special envoy for Ukraine and one of the witnesses deposed by the House, confirmed to the House that he would indeed speak to the committees in question on October 3rd. Marie Yokanovitch, who is the former ambassador to Kyiv, will appear on October 11th and Steve Linick, the State Department’s Inspector General, informed the House that he hoped to brief them on October 2nd regarding documents that contain information about relations with Ukraine. 

*Image Credit: TIME

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