impeachment proceedings begin over trump’s pressuring of ukraine

Last week, details leaked about a phone conversation US President Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in July.

This week, a rough transcript was released that shows Trump had urged Zelenskiy to investigate former VP Joe Biden for corruption, apparently over a Ukrainian company Biden’s son had ties to. The call happened while the Trump admin was withholding aid to Ukraine, causing some alarm over whether this combination of pressures was violating the law.

Trump has said he was only withholding aid because he wanted Europe and others to contribute more, and not for the purpose of pressuring Zelenskiy into investigating a political rival. The withheld aid was released this month as Democrats began investigating the incident. The House has since launched an impeachment inquiry.

Yesterday, the complaint from the whistleblower, a CIA officer who originally flagged this phone call, was released. The whistleblower saw it as the White House trying to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election and accuses the administration of trying to cover it up; they also said this is not the first time politically sensitive transcripts like this were buried.

Meanwhile, the acting director of national intelligence had to explain why he at first didn’t share the complaint with Congress. The DOJ did not require him to register the complaint, arguing it wasn’t an “urgent concern.”

Trump is the fourth president in US history to face an impeachment inquiry. The House GOP leader has accused Democrats of launching the impeachment process “without one bit of evidence.” Trump says whoever helped the whistleblower is basically a spy, and seemed to reminisce about the “old days” when spies were handled “a little differently” – which some people took as witness intimidation.

Over 90% of the 235 Democrat representatives in the House now support or are open to supporting the impeachment process.