House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces launch of impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, Washington DC, September 24, 2019

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces the launch of a formal impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump’s possible legal violations and abuse of power.

Pelosi used the catalyst of Trump’s late July phone call to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which Trump sought an investigation of Democratic rival Joe Biden, according to multiple officials.

A US intelligence official filed a complaint on August 12 over the call, with the intelligence community’s Inspector General confirming the matter was of “urgent concern”. That triggered a legal requirement to notify Congressional committees, but Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire has refused to provide the content of the complaint to legislators.

Inspector General Michael Atkinson testified to the House Intelligence Committee in a three-hour closed-door hearing last Thursday, confirming that he was barred from discussing the complaint’s substance. Maguire is scheduled to appear before the Committee on Thursday.

Pelosi had held out for months against a formal inquiry, but on Monday she indicated a shift, writing to Democratic colleagues of “a grave new chapter of lawlessness which will take us into a whole new stage of investigation”. She called a series of legislators on Monday night, some of whom had just declared support of impeachment.

See also EA on BBC: Will Trump Be Impeached Over Ukraine Call?
TrumpWatch, Day 977: Trump Ordered Military Aid Freeze Before Ukraine Call About Biden

The changing position was reinforced by revelations on Monday that Trump had personally ordered the Pentagon and State Department to withhold military aid from Ukraine, days before the call with Zelenskiy. Critics claim that Trump, whose lawyer Rudy Giuliani was pressing Ukrainian officials to investigate Biden, linked the demand to refusal of assistance despite Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support of separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Pelosi told House Democrats in a meeting just before her announcement, “Right now, we have to strike while the iron is hot.”

“Must Be Held Accountable”

Pelosi said in a televised statement on Tuesday afternoon:

The actions taken to date by the President have seriously violated the Constitution….[He] must be held accountable — no one is above the law….The actions of the Trump Presidency have revealed the 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.

Often invoking the Constitution and Founding Fathers, she said, “The times have found us” to deal with a critical moment in US history.

Beyond the Ukraine-Biden affair, Pelosi’s announcement does not begin a new process but pulls together a series of Congressional hearings into multiple claims about Trump’s possible legal violations and abuses of power. Inquiries are being held into his tax and business affairs, with allegations of tax manipulation, profit for the Trump Organization and Trump personally from his Presidency, and even fraud. Investigation continues of the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia in 2016 and Trump’s subsequent obstruction of justice to bury the work of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

But the Trump camp has dedicated itself to blocking and undermining the inquiries. Officials have been ordered not to answer subpoenas for testimony and documents. Attorney General William Barr, who himself has defied committees’ calls for testimony, has misrepresented the Mueller Report on Trump-Russia links. Trump and his allies have relied on the tactic of crying “Witch Hunt”, “Hoax”, and “Fake News” to replace any information with confusion and even lies.

Trump immediately took to Twitter with the tactic on Tuesday:

Trump, whose speech at the UN General Assembly was eclipsed by Pelosi’s announcement, also said the White House will finally release the transcript of his call with Zelenskiy.

The Administration had been split over the release, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin saying it would set a dangerous precedent. But as pressure grew on Trump this weekend, he indicated — albeit in confusing and sometimes contradictory statements — that he wanted the transcript to be made public.

Coming Up….

Late Tuesday the White House and intelligence officials were discussing an arrangement for the US intelligence official to speak to Congressional committees about his complaint, and to provide a redacted version of the document.

But House Democrats are demanding the full version of the complaint. On Wednesday they will table a resolution condemning Trump’s behavior over Ukraine and the handling of the whistleblower.

Before her announcement, Pelosi told colleagues that said the multiple investigating committees should assemble their cases on potentially impeachable offenses and send them to the Judiciary Committee, according to “two officials familiar with the conversation”.

Meanwhile, Trump’s camp insisted that they would benefit from the impeachment process. Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale issued fund-raising plea for an “Official Impeachment Defense Task Force”, replaying the tactic of diversionary, unsupported allegations against Joe Biden.

Democrats can’t beat President Trump on his policies or his stellar record of accomplishment, so they’re trying to turn a Joe Biden scandal into a Trump problem. The misguided Democrat impeachment strategy is meant to appease their rabid, extreme, leftist base, but will only serve to embolden and energize President Trump’s supporters and create a landslide victory for the President.