Formal impeachment inquiry announced

President+Donald+Trumps+first%2C+four-year+term+is+almost+over+with+the+2020+election+approaching.+The+formal+impeachment+inquiry+could+carry+over+into+the+election.+

Photo courtesy U.S. Embassy, Jakarta

President Donald Trump’s first, four-year term is almost over with the 2020 election approaching. The formal impeachment inquiry could carry over into the election.

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives announced the beginning of a formal impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump Sept. 24. Impeachment inquiries grew after Trump acknowledged asking the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to look into his political rival, former vice president and 2020 presidential candidate, Joe Biden. Trump also withheld military aid from Ukraine until after the call. A report of certain proportions of the phone call between Trump and Zelensky was released July 2019.  The report includes allegations of the white house using a classified computer system to withhold politically damaging documents. The report now deemed as the “whistleblower report” is now available to the public. 

This poor little sissy was all worried. This guy was ‘visibly shaken.’ I think a 5-year-old child wouldn’t be visibly shaken by it. Nobody was threatening anyone,” Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said. “I hope he’s in a mental hospital.”

Giuliani believes the phone call had no relation to national security and lacked any substance. 

Since the announcement of the formal impeachment inquiry, the White House has refused to cooperate with congress. They have refused to comply with the democratic house including withholding documents and testimonies. 

“You have designed and implemented your inquiry in a manner that violates fundamental fairness and constitutionally mandated due process,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote in an eight-page letter to Pelosi and the chairman of the inquiry.

According to CBSnews.com, Cipollone argued that the inquiry was invalid because there has not been an official vote on the impeachment inquiry. The democratic party points out that when it comes to an impeachment the constitution leaves the power solely to the house and no official vote must be taken. He also believes that the impeachment is being used for political gain in the upcoming election in 2020.

Trump responded to the impeachment inquiry on Twitter. In his tweets, he referred to the impeachment as “a total witch hunt scam by democrats” and “witch hunt garbage”. 

In an interview with PBS.org Allan Lithcmen, the author of The Case of Impeachment, and a historian at American University said: “The courts have not been sympathetic to presidents attempting to interfere with impeachment inquiries.”

Trump has called a cabinet meeting which will be held Oct. 21 at 11 a.m. Many of his cabinets names have been brought up in the formal impeachment inquiry. This will be the first cabinet meeting since July.