Pelosi announces impeachment inquiry; Horsford, Lee express support

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump following reports he withheld aid to the Ukraine to pressure that country’s foreign leader to investigate a Democratic presidential rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

The House also will vote on a resolution of disapproval Wednesday over the Trump administration’s attempt to block the release of the complaint filed by the whistleblower.

“Allegations that the president of the United States sought to enlist a foreign government to interfere in our democratic process by investigating one of his political rivals – and may have used the withholding of congressionally-appropriated foreign assistance days earlier as intimidation – are deeply alarming,” said Pelosi, D-Calif.

“This is not a partisan matter, it’s about the integrity of our democracy, respect for the rule of law and defending our Constitution,” Pelosi said.

“Look it’s just a continuation of the witch hunt,” Trump told reporters at the UN. “It’s the worst witch hunt in political history.”

Pelosi reversed months of inaction after moderate House Democrats first reluctant to impeach Trump — including two from Nevada — jumped on the bandwagon Tuesday following allegations the Ukranian president was pressured to investigate a Trump political adversary.

Reps. Steven Horsford and Susie Lee, both Democrats in competitive congressional districts, said Tuesday they now back a House impeachment inquiry into the president following the disclosure about Trump’s request of the Ukranian president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic frontrunner for that party’s nomination.

In a joint statement, Horsford and Lee said “we were elected to fight against corruption.”

“Now, our commitment to root out corruption has forced us to consider the most powerful tool for accountability,” they said, “that of impeachment.”

“Make no mistake, these recent allegations are certainly dire. They point to a direct abuse of power at the expense of our national security,” Horsford and Lee said.

The disclosures have been a tipping point for some House Democrats reluctant to seek impeachment of the president for allegations of obstruction of justice outlined in a special counsel report into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election on behalf of Trump.

Trump’s admission on Ukraine

That reluctance has dimmed after Trump admitted he pressured Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden, a 2020 Democratic candidate, and his son, Hunter, who sat on a Ukranian gas company board of directors. Several national newspapers reported today that Trump’s discussion came shortly after the United States had suspended millions in military aid for Ukraine. The president denied a connection between withholding the aid and the investigation.

The impeachment talk by House Democrats comes as the president was meeting with world leaders at the United Nations, and is expected to sit down with Zelensky later this week.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing, but after three years of investigation by a special counsel to determine collusion with Russians in the 2016 presidential election, Trump admitted seeking the help of the Ukranian government with an investigation into Biden.

Biden, speaking in Delaware, said the president thinks “he is above the law” and encouraged the House to take up an impeachment inquiry over the Ukranian telephone call.

The admission of the president, and the testimony of the whistleblower before Congress this week, has placed the House and Senate on a rapid impeachment pace, unlike the special counsel report into alleged misconduct in the Russian meddling investigation that took more than three years and resulted in no clear charges.

Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., came out earlier in favor of impeachment proceedings and is part of House Democratic committee leaders who are conducting investigations into the president’s property, taxes and personal affairs.

Titus is leading a subcommittee investigation into questions about the Trump International Hotel, its federal lease and the president’s continued profits from his company and the hotel, which caters to foreign and corporate parties.

Pelosi weighs support

Pelosi has been measuring support for impeachment and the politically divisive move to remove the president from office.

She was moved to back impeachment following news of the Ukranian issue that the Trump administration’s failure to allow the inspector general for intelligence services to forward to the whistleblower complaint to Congress, a violation of law.

Pelosi spoke to the Democratic caucus before she made her statement that the House would begin an impeachment inquiry.

The House could vote to censure the president as it begins an impeachment inquiry into the request for a Ukrananian investigation into Biden

Although only one Republican has called for impeachment, Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., several members of the GOP have voiced concern about recent acknowledgements by the president. Amash later announced he was leaving the Republican Party to serve as an independent.

Republican lawmakers voicing concern include Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee.

But impeachment proceedings begin in the House, and until the watershed moment where Democrats have enough votes on the floor to vote to remove the president, Pelosi has been wary of placing moderates with competitive re-election battles on the front lines.

Congress demands report

Democrats chairs of three committees, Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight, have ordered acting national intelligence director Joseph MaGuire to turn over to Congress a whistleblower’s complaint about the conversation between the U.S. and Ukrananian presidents.

The letter was sent by the chairmen to the White House on Tuesday with a deadline of Thursday to comply.

Democrats want the whistleblower’s complaint by Thursday, a demand that has become complicated by the Justice Department, which has argued against turning the document over to Congress.

Despite the rush by Democrats to begin impeachment proceedings, and with the majority of the caucus in favor of impeachment, Pelosi still lacks public approval in national opinion polls, or Republican support, to carry out an inquiry and vote.

Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., said the whistleblower’s complaint was very troubling. “We need to bring that forward,” she said.

Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he expected the whistleblower to brief Congress this week on his complaint, but said any decisions past that briefing would be pure conjecture until lawmakers know what was said and in what context.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.