House Democrats Unveil Official Impeachment Resolution, Will Formally Vote On Thursday
On Tuesday, House Democrats took President Donald Trump‘s impeachment inquiry to the next phase by revealing an official resolution that outlines exactly how they’ll go about the process, which is a change of strategy intended to stifle opinion from the White House that the process has, so far, been unconstitutional and unfair.
According to NBC, the resolution, which can be seen here, announced that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff will hold open hearings for testimony provided to House Democrats by key witnesses with regard to Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The chair of the Permanent Select Committee shall designate an open hearing or hearings pursuant to this section,” the resolution stated.
The impeachment inquiry was announced last month by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after a White House memo-based transcript of the phone call was convincing enough to House Democrats that Trump abused his power in an attempt to pressure the foreign leader into providing political ammunition against former Vice President Joe Biden — one of the president’s likely 2020 presidential opponents.
Tuesday’s resolution directs “certain committees to continue their ongoing investigations as part of the existing House of Representatives inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its Constitutional power to impeach Donald John Trump, President of the United States of America, and for other purposes.”
It mentioned several committees, including the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committees on Financial Services, Foreign Affairs, the Judiciary, Oversight and Reform, and Ways and Means.
NEW: @HouseDemocrats have released the resolution directing the continuation of the ongoing impeachment probe. pic.twitter.com/yefIjZHpNI
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) October 29, 2019
According to CBS, the House resolution will be formally marked up on Wednesday and Democratic leaders in the chamber will bring forth a formal vote on the impeachment inquiry on Thursday. That move is presumably one that will make it inherently more difficult for the White House to continue their non-compliance with the investigation based on grounds for whichthey cite are unconstitutional.
As news of the impeachment resolution was announced, top GOP leaders in the House expressed their disapproval, writing a letter to the House Rules Committee chairman claiming that Democrats were not following a rule of posting a text of the resolution at least 72 hours in advance of a formal vote.
The development comes amid potentially damning testimony from decorated Iraq war veteran and U.S. Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s expected testimony in front of three House committees on Tuesday, as previously reported by The Inquistr.
Vindman, who was a top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council and inside the White House circle to the degree in which he was able to hear the phone call, said in a statement that his “sense of duty” compelled him to testify and that he believed Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian leader was not “proper.”
