U.S. House of Reps begins impeachment inquiry against Trump

By Dayo Benson New York

The tempestuous relationship between President Donald Trump and the United States House of Representatives reached its climax yesterday as Speaker Nancy Pelosi, announced late afternoon the Congress’ decision to begin an impeachment inquiry against the President.

Specifically, Speaker Pelosi accused President Trump of violating his oath of office by soliciting a foreign power to take actions that would be of electoral benefit to him.

President Trump had come under fire following a whistleblower complain that he(Trump) put pressure on Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a telephone conversation to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, over alleged business corruption in Ukraine in 2014, in exchange for U.S. continuous financial aid.

The quid pro quo offer allegedly made in the telephone conversation was seen as the reason Trump had withheld the financial aid which the Congress had approved to assist Ukraine’s military against Russia invasion.

Trump had insisted the telephone conversation was “friendly and appropriate “ even as he promised to release the unredacted transcript of the conversation today(Wednesday).

Biden in his reaction described Trump’s action as an “overwhelming abuse of power” that demanded Congress’ investigation, while another Democratic Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, called for impeachment.

Consequently, the Speaker had directed the House’s six different Committees investigating the President to harmonize their investigations “under the umbrella of impeachment” .

The development ended months of resistance by Speaker Pelosi to be drawn into impeachment move which she feared could have an unsalutary effects on the Democrats electoral fortunes in 2020.

Addressing the media after a meeting of Congressional Democratic leaders, Speaker Pelosi made the decision to commence an impeachment inquiry known.

“For the past several months, we have been investigating in our committees and litigating in the courts so the House can gather all the relevant facts and consider whether to exercise its full article one powers, including a constitutional power of the utmost gravity approval of articles of impeachment. And this week, the President has admitted to asking the president of Ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically. The actions of the Trump presidency revealed 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.

“Therefore today, I’m announcing the House of Representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. “I’m directing our six committees to proceed with their investigations under that umbrella of impeachment inquiry. The President must be held accountable. No one is above the law”,she declared.

“Last Tuesday, we observed the anniversary of the adoption of the constitution on September 17th. Sadly on that day, the intelligence community Inspector General formally notified the Congress that the administration was forbidding him from turning over a whistleblower complaint on constitution day.

“This is a violation of the law. Shortly thereafter, press reports began to break of a phone call by the president of the United States calling upon a foreign power to intervene in his election. This is a breach of his constitutional responsibilities”, Pelosi said.

She continued ,“the facts are these, the intelligence community Inspector General, who was appointed by President Trump determined that the complaint is both of urgent concern and credible. And it’s disclosure, he went on to say, relates to one of the most significant, important of the Director of National Intelligence’s responsibility to the American people. On “Thursday, the Inspector General testified before the House Intelligence Committee stating that the acting Director of National Intelligence blocked him from disclosing the whistleblower complaint. This is a violation of law.

“The law is unequivocal. It says the DNI, D-N-I Director of National Intelligence, shall provide Congress the full whistleblower complaint. For more than 25 years, I’ve served on the Intelligence Committee as a member, as the ranking member, as part of the Gang of Four even before I was in the leadership.

“I was there when we created the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. That did not exist before 2004. I was there even earlier in the ’90s when we wrote the whistleblower laws and continued to write them to improve them, to ensure the security of our intelligence and the safety of our whistleblowers. I know what their purpose was and we proceeded with balance and caution as we wrote the laws. I can say with authority, the Trump administration’s actions undermine both our national security and our intelligence and our protections of the whistleblowers. More than both.

“This Thursday, the acting DNI will appear before the house intelligence committee. At that time, he must turn over the whistleblower’s full complaint to the committee. He will have to choose whether to break the law or honor his responsibility to the constitution.