Impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump

Impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump
Accused	Donald Trump (President of the United States)
Proponents	Nancy Pelosi (Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives)
Date	September 24, 2019 – ongoing
Cause	Allegations that Trump sought help from Ukrainian authorities to favor him in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

An impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, the 45th and incumbent president of the United States, was initiated on September 24, 2019 by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It began after a whistleblower alleged that President Trump and other top government officials had pressured the leaders of foreign nations, most notably Ukraine, to investigate former U.S. vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter—abusing the power of the presidency to advance Trump's personal and political interests. These allegations have been corroborated by testimony so far by U.S. top-envoy-to-Ukraine Bill Taylor, Laura Cooper (the top Pentagon official overseeing Ukraine-related U.S. policy), White House administration official Fiona Hill, at least six additional White House officials, and many other witnesses. The reports implicated Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani—as well as Gordon Sondland, Kurt Volker, Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, and other individuals—in taking part in a quid-pro-quo campaign to pressure the Ukrainian government to take actions which would be helpful to Trump's 2020 presidential campaign. Additional alleged misconduct was both reported and performed in the days after the announcement of the impeachment inquiry.

The first whistleblower's complaint was given to Congress on September 25, 2019 and released to the public the next day. A second whistleblower came forward on October 5 with "first-hand knowledge of allegations" associated with the call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. From May to August 2019, Trump and Giuliani are alleged to have repeatedly pressed the government of Ukraine to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden. On July 18, through his chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, Trump instructed his staff to place a hold on congressionally mandated military aid to Ukraine. During a phone call a week later, he pressured President Zelensky to launch two investigations, including one into the actions of the Bidens. The whistleblower also accused the White House of attempting to cover up the contents of this phone call. In response, the Trump administration released a memorandum of the call, confirming that Trump had asked Zelensky to "look into" Biden. The whistleblower's report alleged that Trump's violations were "so obviously egregious" that White House officials immediately attempted to cover it up. One such action was intentionally misclassifying the transcript of the call, other evidence of presidential misconduct and politically damaging material, so as to place it in top secret servers where very few people would have access to it. Administration officials had begun placing transcripts of conversations with world leaders onto these servers following high-profile leaks in 2017.

The White House officially responded to the impeachment proceedings in a letter from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to House Speaker Pelosi that it would cease all cooperation with the investigation due to a litany of concerns, including that there had been no vote of the full House, and that interviews of witnesses were being conducted behind closed doors. Ambassador Taylor testified that he had been told U.S. military aid to Ukraine and a Trump–Zelensky White House meeting were dependent on Zelensky publicly announcing investigations into the Bidens and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council's Director of European Affairs, testified that he overheard Trump's phone conversation with Zelensky and that he had told a White House lawyer that he was concerned about the president's remarks. On October 31, 2019, the House voted 232–196 to establish procedures for public impeachment hearings.

Background

Previous efforts for impeachment

Further information: Efforts to impeach Donald Trump

Efforts to impeach President Trump have been made by various people and groups, and talk of impeachment began even before Trump took office. Formal efforts were initiated by Representatives Al Green and Brad Sherman, both Democrats (D), in 2017, the first year of his presidency. A December 2017 resolution of impeachment failed in the then–Republican-led House by a 58–364 vote margin.

Democrats gained control of the House following the 2018 elections and launched multiple investigations into Trump's actions and finances. On January 17, 2019, new accusations involving Trump surfaced, claiming he instructed his long-time lawyer, Michael Cohen, to lie under oath surrounding Trump's involvement with the Russian government to erect a Trump Tower in Moscow. This also sparked calls for an investigation and for the president to "resign or be impeached" should such claims be proven genuine.

The Mueller Report, released on April 18, 2019, reached no conclusion as to whether Trump had committed criminal obstruction of justice. Special Counsel Robert Mueller strongly hinted that it was up to Congress to make such a determination. Congressional support for an impeachment inquiry increased as a result. Speaker Nancy Pelosi initially resisted calls for impeachment. In May 2019, she indicated that Trump's continued actions, which she characterized as obstruction of justice and refusal to honor congressional subpoenas, might make an impeachment inquiry necessary. An increasing number of House Democrats and a then-Republican, Justin Amash (who later became an independent), were requesting such an inquiry.

As of September 2019, the following resolutions had been introduced in the 116th Congress regarding possible impeachment:

• H. Res. 13 (alleging interference with the Mueller investigation) introduced on January 3, 2019, by Representative Sherman (D-California)—immediately referred to the Judiciary Committee and to Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties on February 4, 2019.
• H. Res. 257 (which would launch an impeachment inquiry with no specific allegations) introduced on March 27, 2019, by Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan)—referred to the Rules Committee.
• H. Res. 396 (which names 19 areas of inquiry) introduced on May 22, 2019, by Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas)—referred to the Rules Committee.
• H. Res. 498 (which alleges Trump is unfit for office due to racist comments) introduced on July 17, 2019, by Representative Green (D-Texas)—a privileged resolution which was blocked from proceeding by a vote of 332–95.

Fewer than 20 Representatives in the House supported impeachment by January 2019, but this number grew after the Mueller Report was released in April and after Mueller testified in July, up to around 140 Representatives before the Trump–Ukraine scandal began.

Trump–Ukraine scandal

Main article: Trump–Ukraine scandal

Whistleblower complaint dated August 12, 2019, regarding a July 25 phone conversation between Trump and Zelensky

Memorandum of the call between Trump and Zelensky released by the White House on September 25, 2019

From May to August 2019, Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani pressed the Ukrainian government to investigate business activities of Hunter Biden, the son of 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden, who had taken a board seat on Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings. Despite the allegations, as of September 2019, there has been no evidence produced of any wrongdoing by the Bidens.As early as May 2019 Amos Hochstein, a former diplomat and a member of Naftogaz's supervisory board, alerted the National Security Council (NSC) staff that Rudy Giuliani and Gordon Sondland's pressure tactics, carried out in part by Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were rattling Ukraine president Zelenskiy.

The whistleblower report centered around one instance of such pressure that occurred in a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump mentioned two investigations he wanted to see Ukraine launch. One of these would concern allegations that connected the American cybersecurity technology company CrowdStrike to Ukrainian actors supposedly interfering in the 2016 election. Trump had been repeatedly told by aides that Ukraine did not interfere in the 2016 election, but refused to accept these assurances. The theory, which originated on 4chan in 2017, has been spread by blogs, social media, and Fox News. The other requested investigation concerned Joe Biden, former U.S. Vice President and a candidate for the 2020 presidential election, and the Ukrainian business dealings of his son Hunter Biden. At the time of the inquiry, Joe Biden was the leading candidate in Democratic Party primary polling, according to poll aggregators, making him Trump's most likely 2020 election opponent. On September 25, the White House released part of a transcript of Trump's conversation with Zelensky following a promise to do so the previous day; on the same day, the whistleblower complaint was released to Congress.

On July 18, 2019, Trump had placed a hold on military aid to Ukraine while "providing no explanation"; he lifted it in September. Trump did not mention the hold in his conversation with Zelensky, but he repeatedly pointed out that the United States has been "very very good" to Ukraine, with which Zelensky agreed. Zelensky then expressed interest in obtaining more U.S. missiles, to which Trump replied "I would like you to do us a favor though" and brought up his request for investigations. Democratic candidate for president Elizabeth Warren described this sentence as a "smoking gun" suggesting a quid pro quo. Prominent Democrats, including Senators Robert Menendez and Chris Murphy, suggested that the hold may have been intended to implicitly or explicitly pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate Hunter Biden. Former Ukrainian presidential advisor Serhiy Leshchenko said it was made a "clear fact" that Ukraine's communication with the United States was dependent on discussing a future investigation into the Bidens, while another anonymous Ukrainian lawmaker said Trump attempted to "pressure" and "blackmail" them into accepting a "quid-pro-quo" agreement based upon cooperation.

The New York Times reported on October 3 that U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker had in August drafted a statement for Velensky to sign that would commit Ukraine to investigate Burisma, the company that Hunter Biden worked for, as well as the conspiracy theory that Ukraine interfered with the 2016 election to benefit Hillary Clinton.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said on September 13, 2019, that he had issued a subpoena to Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, as Maguire had failed to release a whistleblower's complaint filed under the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act on August 12 to the congressional intelligence committees, as was arguably required by the relevant statute. Schiff argued that he had concerns that the complaint might have been withheld from Congress "in an unlawful effort to protect the President and conceal from the Committee information related to his possible 'serious or flagrant' misconduct, abuse of power, or violation of law".

On September 22, shortly after the whistleblower's allegations became public, Trump acknowledged that he had discussed Joe Biden during a call with Zelensky on July 25. Trump said, "The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, was largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place, was largely the fact that we don't want our people like Vice President Biden and his son creating [sic] to the corruption already in Ukraine." Trump denied that his hold on military aid for Ukraine was linked to the Ukrainian government's refusal to investigate the Hunter Biden controversy, while also saying that withholding aid for this reason would have been ethically acceptable if he had done it. On September 26, 2019, Trump accused the person who provided the whistleblower with information of the call of being a "spy" and guilty of treason, before noting that treason is punishable by death. As a result of Trump's comments, the whistleblower's lawyers said their client feared for his or her safety.

Two people close to Trump told The New York Times that the behavior in the scandal was "typical" of his "dealings on the phone with world leaders", e.g. engaging in flattery, discussing mutual cooperation, and bringing up a personal favor which then could be delegated. In an interview, Giuliani defended Trump, calling the president's request of the Ukrainian president "perfectly appropriate," while also indicating that he himself may have made a similar request to Ukrainian officials. A second whistleblower, who is also an intelligence official, came forward on October 5 with "first-hand knowledge of allegations" associated with the phone call between Trump and Zelensky, according to the lawyer representing both whistleblowers.

Further revelations

President Trump states on October 4, 2019, that "China should start an investigation into the Bidens"

Details emerged on September 27, 2019, that the White House had used the most highly classified computer system to store memorandums of conversations with the leaders and officials of countries including Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Administration officials had began storing these transcripts into this system after Trump's conversations with Australia's prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and Mexico's president Enrique Peña Nieto leaked earlier in 2017. This was seen by critics and the media as a deliberate attempt to hide potentially damaging information. Also on September 27, it was reported that Trump had told Russian officials in 2017 that he was unconcerned about Russian interference in U.S. elections. On October 4, 2019, Trump held a news conference where he publicly said Ukraine should investigate the Bidens, and also called on China to investigate the Bidens.

Soon after the release of the Mueller report, Trump began urging an investigation into the origins of the Russia probe, wanting to "investigate the investigators" and possibly discredit the conclusions of the FBI and Mueller. In April 2019, Attorney General William Barr announced that he had launched a review of the origins of the FBI's investigation, even though the origins of the probe were already being investigated by the Justice Department's inspector general and by U.S. attorney John Huber, who had been appointed to the same task in 2018 by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Barr assigned U.S. Attorney John Durham to lead the probe, and Trump directed the American intelligence community to "promptly provide assistance and information" to Barr, and delegated to him the "full and complete authority" to declassify any related documents. Although Durham was nominally in charge of the investigation, Barr himself began contacting foreign governments to ask for information about the origins of the FBI probe. Barr personally traveled to the United Kingdom and Italy to seek information; Italy's parliament is expected to begin its own investigation into Barr's meetings with Italian secret services. At Barr's request, Trump himself phoned the prime minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, to ask for assistance.

Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, two Florida businessmen and associates of Guiliani, were arrested at Washington Dulles International Airport on October 9, 2019, on campaign finance-related charges brought by federal prosecutors in New York City. The men had hired Guiliani as a consultant in their security company and also assisted him in his search in Ukraine for damaging information about Trump's political opponents.

Inquiry

External videos
Announcement by Nancy Pelosi of formal impeachment inquiry, September 24, 2019, C-SPAN

On the evening of September 24, 2019, Pelosi announced that six committees of the House of Representatives would undertake a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump. Pelosi accused Trump of betraying his oath of office, U.S. national security, and the integrity of the country's elections. The six committees charged with the task are the committees on Financial Services, the Judiciary, Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, Oversight and Reform, and Ways and Means.

House of Representatives debate the whistleblower complaint against President Trump on September 25, 2019.

Joseph Maguire, the Acting Director of National Intelligence who delayed the whistleblower complaint from reaching Congress, testified publicly before the House Intelligence Committee on September 26, 2019. Maguire defended his decision not to immediately forward the whistleblower complaint to Congress and explained that he had consulted the White House Counsel and the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department but was unable to determine whether the document was protected by executive privilege. Democrats on the committee questioned his actions, arguing that the law demands that he "shall" forward such complaints to the committee. Maguire countered that the situation was unique since the complaint involves communications of the president. Members of the Intelligence Committee also asked the director why he chose to consult with White House lawyers when he was not required to do so by law, to which he responded that he believed "it would be prudent to have another opinion".

In a private conference call with Democratic lawmakers on September 29, 2019, Pelosi explained how three of these House committees will begin investigating the President's alleged abuse of power. The Intelligence Committee will focus on the contents of the whistleblower complaint and whether the complaint may have been wrongfully hidden from Congress, while the Foreign Affairs Committee will focus on interactions the State Department may have had with the President's personal attorney Giuliani, and the Oversight and Reform Committee will investigate whether White House classification systems were used to secure potentially damaging records of phone calls between the President and leaders of various countries around the world.

Requests for evidence and White House refusal

Letter from White House Counsel to the Speaker and committee chairs stating that the Trump administration will not participate in the House's "partisan and unconstitutional" inquiry

On September 27, 2019, a subpoena was issued by the House to obtain documents Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refused to release earlier. Said documents include several interactions between Trump, Giuliani, and Ukrainian government officials. The documents are requested to be filed with the involved committees probing the issue; the failure to do so "shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House's impeachment inquiry," as stated in a letter written to Pompeo. The subpoena comes after several requests by the House to receive the documents from the Secretary which he did not fulfill. Several members of the House involved with the impeachment inquiry sent him subsequent letters stating that they will be meeting with members of the State Department who may provide further information. The following week, a subpoena was also issued to Giuliani for production of documents.

On October 4, 2019, the House Intelligence Committee issued subpoenas both to the White House and to Vice President Mike Pence for documents related to the whistleblower complaint. Among the White House documents requested include audio tapes, transcripts, notes, and other White House documents related to the whistleblower controversy.

On October 8, 2019, the White House announced that it would cease all cooperation with the investigation in a letter from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to Speaker Pelosi and the three committee chairmen conducting the impeachment investigation. In the letter Cipollone said the investigation "violates the Constitution, the rule of law, and every past precedent" and that "The President cannot allow your constitutionally illegitimate proceedings to distract him and those in the Executive Branch." The letter went on to state that "[the investigation's] unprecedented actions have left the President with no choice. In order to fulfill his duties to the American people, the Constitution, the Executive Branch, and all future occupants of the Office of the Presidency, President Trump and his Administration cannot participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded to the letter stating that "The White House should be warned that continued efforts to hide the truth of the president's abuse of power from the American people will be regarded as further evidence of obstruction."

Giuliani's attorney, Jim A. Sale, sent a letter to the House Intelligence Committee on October 15, 2019, stating that Giuliani will not hand over documents subpoenaed by the committee. Citing attorney–client and executive privilege, the letter characterized the subpoena as "beyond the scope of legitimate inquiry".

Subpoenas for documents

Name	Position	Deadline date	Status of compliance
Gordon Sondland	United States Ambassador to the European Union	October 14, 2019	Refused to provide documents
Mike Pence	Vice President of the United States	October 15, 2019	Refused to provide documents
Rudy Giuliani	Personal attorney to President Trump	October 15, 2019	Refused to provide documents
Mark T. Esper	United States Secretary of Defense	October 15, 2019	Refused to provide documents
Mick Mulvaney	Acting White House Chief of Staff	October 18, 2019	Refused to provide documents
Rick Perry	United States Secretary of Energy	October 18, 2019	Announced resignation on October 17

Subpoenas to appear before House committees

Name	Position	Deadline date	Status of compliance
Joseph Maguire	Acting Director of National Intelligence	–	Testified on September 26, 2019, before the House Intelligence Committee
Steve Linick	State Department Inspector General	–	Met with Congress on October 2, and shared conspiracy-theory documents Giuliani had previously sent to the FBI
Marie Yovanovitch	Former United States Ambassador to Ukraine	October 2, 2019	Deposed on October 11
Kurt Volker	Former U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine	October 3, 2019	Deposed on October 3; returned for additional questioning on October 16
Michael Atkinson	Intelligence Community Inspector General	–	Deposed on October 4
George Kent	Deputy Assistant Secretary	October 7, 2019	Blocked from appearing on October 7; deposed on October 15
Lev Parnas	Businessman, associate of Rudy Giuliani	October 11, 2019	Arrested on October 9 at Dulles Airport and charged with alleged federal campaign finance-related crimes in New York
Igor Fruman	Businessman, associate of Rudy Giuliani	October 11, 2019
Fiona Hill	Former White House Russia adviser	–	Deposed on October 14
Semyon Kislin	Businessman, associate of Rudy Giuliani	October 14, 2019	Reached "an understanding" with committees and is cooperating, according to his attorney
Michael McKinley	Senior adviser to Secretary Pompeo	–	Deposed on October 16, 2019
Gordon Sondland	United States Ambassador to the European Union	October 16, 2019	First subpoenaed to appear by October 10; deposed on October 17
Bill Taylor	U.S. Chargé d'affaires to Ukraine	–	Deposed on October 22, 2019
Laura Cooper	Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense	–	Was initially expected to appear on October 18, 2019; deposed on October 23
Philip T. Reeker	Acting Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs	–	Deposed on October 26, 2019
Charles Kupperman	Former Deputy National Security Advisor	October 28, 2019	Was expected to appear on October 28, 2019; refused, pending court ruling
Alexander Vindman	National Security Council director for European Affairs	–	Deposed on October 29, 2019
Catherine Croft	National Security Council staff	–	Deposed on October 30, 2019
Kathryn L. Wheelbarger	Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs	–	Was expected to appear on October 30, 2019
Tim Morrison	National Security Council Senior Director for Europe and Russia	–	Deposed on October 31, 2019
Michael Duffey	Associate Director for National Security Programs	November 5, 2019	Did not appear voluntarily on October 23, 2019; given a subpoena on October 25, 2019
Ulrich Brechbuhl	Counselor of the State Department	November 6, 2019	Did not appear voluntarily on October 8, 2019; given a subpoena on October 25, 2019
Russell Vought	Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget	November 6, 2019	Did not appear voluntarily on October 25, 2019; given a subpoena that day

Depositions

Initial depositions were taken in a secure room in front of three committees meeting jointly—the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight committees. Only members of the three committees (47 Republicans and 57 Democrats) are permitted to attend. Witnesses are questioned by staff lawyers, and committee members are allowed to ask questions, with equal time being given to Republicans and Democrats. Transcripts are expected to be released and public hearings to be held at some time in the future.

On the morning of the Cipollone letter on October 8, 2019, Sondland had been scheduled to testify before the House regarding his involvement in the withholding of aid from the Ukraine. However, he was instructed not to attend at the last minute by the State Department upon Trump's command.

Early depositions: October 11–17

Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch's opening statement to her testimony before three House committees, October 11, 2019

Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine, testified on October 11 in defiance to the White House although she remains an employee of the U.S. State Department. Yovanovitch told House committees that she was "incredulous" at being dismissed in May. She described the State Department as "attacked and hollowed out from within". Yovanovitch testified that she had never met or spoken with Hunter Biden and that Joe Biden had never raised the subject of his son or the Ukrainian gas firm that employed him. During his July 25 phone call with Zelensky, Trump called Yovanovitch "bad news" and mentioned that "[s]he's going to go through some things".

A former adviser to the president on Russian affairs, Fiona Hill, testified before congressional investigators on October 14, 2019. She told the House committees that Giuliani circumvented State Department officials and diplomats, and that she had confronted Ambassador Sondland, who was assisting Giuliani in his efforts to pressure Ukraine into beginning investigations that would personally benefit Trump. After a meeting in which Sondland announced that there were "[Ukrainian] investigations that were dropped [and] need to be started up again" and under instruction from John Bolton (the National Security Advisor from April 2018 to September 2019), Hill expressed her and Bolton's concerns about Giuliani's activities to John Eisenberg, an attorney for the National Security Council. Hill testified that she, Bolton, Volker, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and two Ukrainian officials, were at that meeting on July 10, 2019, and that Bolton was furious after the meeting when he told her he was "not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up". Hill told the committees that Giuliani was running a rogue foreign policy while informing the president's official advisers but leaving them powerless to stop it. When she confronted Sondland who she believed was involved in affairs outside his position's purview, he claimed that, according to Trump, he was in charge of Ukraine matters.

George Kent, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, appeared before the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees on October 15, 2019. Kent is the second current State Department official to defy White House instructions and comply with House subpoenas to testify before the committees. According to Representative Gerry Connolly (D-Virginia), Kent testified that, during a meeting at the White House on May 23 organized by Mulvaney, Sondland, Volkner, and Perry, who called themselves the "three amigos", had declared that they were now responsible for Ukrainian affairs. Connolly also said that Kent testified that he had been directed to "lay low" and to focus on foreign relations with the five other countries in his purview.

Ambassador Gordon Sondland's opening statement to his testimony before three House committees, October 17, 2019

A former senior adviser to Secretary Pompeo, Michael McKinley, testified on October 16, 2019, after having resigned from his position the previous week. McKinley testified that he had resigned from his position out of frustration with the Trump administration and that the recall of Ambassador Yovanovitch was the "last straw". In his opening remarks, he said "[t]he timing of my resignation was the result of two overriding concerns: the failure, in my view, of the State Department to offer support to Foreign Service employees caught up in the impeachment inquiry on Ukraine and, second, by what appears to be the utilization of our ambassadors overseas to advance a domestic political objective. McKinley said he was "disturbed by the implication that foreign governments were being approached to procure negative information on political opponents".

Before appearing in front of three House committees on October 17, 2019, Ambassador Sondland publicly released his opening remarks. He testified that Trump had refused to meet with the Ukrainian president without preconditions and that, in a May 23 meeting, State Department officials were directed to work with Giuliani to address Trump's "concerns" about the Ukrainian government. Sondland claimed he was ignorant of Giuliani's intentions and had no choice but to work with the president's personal attorney. According to The New York Times, this conflicts with previous testimony given during the inquiry in which other State Department officials testified that Sondland was "a willing participant who inserted himself into Ukraine policy even though the country is not in the purview of his posting, and was a key player in [Trump]'s efforts to win a commitment from the new Ukrainian government to investigate his political rivals". The Washington Post also disputes this claim, asserting that it conflicts with the known timeline of events. According to The Washington Post, "In the weeks leading up to that May 23 White House briefing, Giuliani's and even Trump's interest in spotlighting the Bidens' actions in Ukraine were hardly a secret."

Bill Taylor

Ambassador Bill Taylor's opening statement to his testimony before three House committees, October 22, 2019

On October 22, 2019, Bill Taylor, the United States' senior diplomatic official in Ukraine, testified to Congressional investigators. Taylor testified that he had learned in mid-July 2019 that a potential White House meeting between Trump and Zelensky "was conditioned on the investigations of Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections", and that he later was told, in September 2019, that U.S. military aid to Ukraine was also dependent on such investigations—including into the Bidens.

Taylor testified that other than the "regular, formal diplomatic processes" to Ukraine led by himself, there was a "highly irregular", "informal channel of U.S. policy-making" with regard to Ukraine. The informal channel began in May 2019, being "guided" by Rudy Giuliani, and also involving Kurt Volker, Gordon Sondland and Rick Perry. Taylor said that by August 2019, he had realized that the informal channel "was running contrary to the goals of longstanding U.S. policy", while the formal channel wanted "a strong U.S.–Ukraine partnership". According to Taylor, the informal channel had "driven" the idea of a White House meeting between the presidents being conditional on the investigations.

Taylor noted that for a June 2019 call between himself, Zelensky, Sondland, Volker and Perry, Sondland had said "he did not wish to include most of the regular interagency participants" and that "he wanted to make sure no one was transcribing or monitoring". As for Trump's July 2019 call with Zelensky, Taylor said he did not receive any report regarding the call from the White House even though he was scheduled to meet Zelensky a day later.

Taylor said he heard from National Security Council aide Tim Morrison that on September 1, Sondland told Zelensky aide Andriy Yermak that the military aid to Ukraine was dependent on Zelensky's pursuit of the Burisma investigation. Taylor cited Sondland telling him in a call that Trump wanted Zelensky to publicly announce he would order the two investigations, thus placing Zelensky "in a public box". Taylor quoted Sondland stating "everything" including military aid and a Trump–Zelensky meeting was contingent on that announcement.

According to Taylor, he wrote a first-person cable to Secretary Pompeo on the advice of national security adviser John Bolton: "I wrote and transmitted such a cable on August 29, describing the 'folly' I saw in withholding military aid to Ukraine at a time when hostilities were still active in the east and when Russia was watching closely to gauge the level of American support for the Ukrainian government. I told the secretary that I could not and would not defend such a policy." Taylor reported that Pompeo gave no reply to his cable.

Republican protest and legal challenges

On October 23, 2019, Laura Cooper, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, testified in closed session before three Congressional committees. Cooper's testimony, originally scheduled for that morning, was delayed roughly five hours when a group of House Republicans led by Matt Gaetz (R-FL) stormed the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) where impeachment inquiry committee meetings are being held, and refused to leave, at one point ordering pizza. The group protested what they asserted were secret Democratic hearings closed to Republicans, although 48 Republicans who are members of the three committees jointly holding the hearings were entitled to attend the hearings and some had done so. Thirteen of those members participated in the protest. Democrats responded with criticism over the interruption and accused the Republicans of violating the rules governing the SCIF, which prohibit cell phones in the area. After the protest ended, Cooper completed her testimony which lasted approximately 3.5 hours. She was expected to speak about how the process works for transferring military aid to Ukraine. She is believed to have tried to get the aid released. The next day it was revealed that her attorney had received a letter from the Pentagon telling her not to testify, citing an administration-wide policy against cooperating with the probe.

The House Judiciary Committee asked to see secret grand jury information which had been used in compiling the Mueller Report. The Department of Justice refused to turn it over, arguing that secrecy of grand jury material must be preserved and that the impeachment inquiry was invalid. On October 25, 2019, Federal Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled that the inquiry is valid and that the Justice Department must forward the information to the committee within the week. Justice Department attorneys had previously asserted that congressional investigators had "not yet exhausted [their] available discovery tools", arguments Howell said "smack of farce", as the administration had openly said it would stonewall the investigation. Some legal analysts noted that a White House counsel letter to Democratic leaders days earlier stating the administration would not cooperate with the impeachment inquiry—which was widely derided as more of a political rather than a legal argument—may have backfired by contributing to Howell's rationale for her decision.

Charles Kupperman, Trump's deputy national security advisor from January to September 2019, filed a lawsuit on October 25, 2019, in which he asked a federal judge to rule which conflicting order he should follow. His attorney said that as a private citizen Kupperman is not able to choose which directive to obey, adding that "Constitutional disputes between the Legislative and Executive Branches should be adjudicated by the Judicial Branch."

Alexander Vindman

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman's opening statement to his testimony before the three House committees on October 29, 2019 (Released on October 28, 2019)

On October 29, 2019, the National Security Council's head of European Affairs, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, testified before the House committees, stating he had overheard Trump's phone conversation with the Ukrainian President. He had released his opening statement the day before. Vindman testified that: "In Spring of 2019, I became aware of outside influencers promoting a false and alternative narrative of Ukraine inconsistent with the consensus views of the interagency," which was "harmful to U.S. national security" and also "undermined U.S. government efforts to expand cooperation with Ukraine".

Vindman stated that, additionally, he was concerned by two events, both to which he objected to senior officials in real time, and which he reported to the National Security Council's lead attorney. The first event occurred at a July 10 meeting between Ukraine's then Secretary of National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Danlylyuk, and then U.S. National Security Advisor Bolton, at which Ambassadors Volker and Sondland, and Secretary Perry were in attendance. At the meeting, Sondland asked Ukraine to launch investigations into the Bidens in order to get a meeting with President Trump. Vindman states that Bolton cut the meeting short, and that both he and Fiona Hill told Ambassador Sondland that his comments were inappropriate, and that he reported the concerns to the NSC's lead counsel.

The second event occurred on a July 25 phone call between President Trump and Zelensky. Vindman states, "I was concerned by the call. I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government's support of Ukraine. I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma, it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained. This would all undermine U.S. national security." Vindman also reported this event to the NSC's lead counsel, John Eisenberg. Vindman also testified that the "rough transcript" of the call released by the White House omitted crucial words and phrases, including Trump asserting recordings of Joe Biden discussing Ukraine corruption exist, which Trump stated in the third set of ellipses in the released transcript. Vindman said he had tried but failed to restore the full transcript. A senior White House official had asserted when the transcript was released that the ellipses "do not indicate missing words or phrases," but rather "a trailing off of a voice or pause". Trump had previously characterized the released transcript as "an exact word-for-word transcript of the conversation".

Late depositions: October 30–31

On October 30, 2019, Catherine Croft, a State Department Ukraine expert and NSC staff member testified. She noted in her opening statement that she was aware of Giuliani's communication with Volker, though she was not involved with those discussions, that former Republican lawmaker Bob Livingston repeatedly called her to promote the removal of Ambassador Yovanovitch. She added: "On July 18, I participated in a sub-Policy Coordination Committee video conference where an OMB representative reported that the White House Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, had placed an informal hold on security assistance to Ukraine. The only reason given was that the order came at the direction of the President."

H. Res. 660 – Directing certain committees to continue their ongoing investigations; adopted on October 31, 2019

Christopher J. Anderson, a career Foreign Service officer who succeeded Croft as adviser to Volker, was also deposed the same day. In his opening statement, Anderson said he and Volker had attempted to satisfy Giuliani while at same time assisting the Ukrainian government fight corruption and build a relationship with the United States. However, their efforts repeatedly conflicted with Giuliani's. Anderson confirmed that Bolton had concerns with Giuliani's involvement in Ukraine affairs, and that he had written a memo summarizing Bolton's concerns to share with other State Department officials including Kent. Anderson also noted that he and several other State Department officials prepared a statement condemning the Russian military intervention in Ukraine after the 2018 attack on Ukrainian vessels in the Sea of Azov. However, the statement was blocked from publication by the White House.

Tim Morrison, the former National Security Council official who listened to President Trump's July call with the president of Ukraine, spoke in a closed-door session on October 31. He corroborated previous testimony by William Taylor, telling lawmakers he "promptly" brought concerns about the call to White House lawyers, but he said he did not necessarily think anything illegal was discussed.

Public hearings

On October 29, 2019, Representative Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) introduced a resolution (H. Res. 660), referred to House Rules Committee, which set forth the "format of open hearings in the House Intelligence Committee, including staff-led questioning of witnesses, and [authorization for] the public release of deposition transcripts". It also proposed the procedures for the transfer of evidence to House Judiciary Committee as it considers articles of impeachment. The resolution was debated in Rules Committee the next day and brought to a floor vote on October 31. It was adopted with a vote of 232 to 196, with two Democrats and all Republicans voting against the measure.

Responses

White House

In the wake of the inquiry, the White House threatened to "shut down" all major legislation as political leverage. Trump and his surrogates engaged in a misinformation campaign to discredit impeachment, with Giuliani taking a lead role. Efforts focused on attacking Joe Biden and his son and attempting to discredit the whistleblower over their motivations and for making the complaint based on hearsay.

On September 30, CNN, citing analysis by Laura Edelson at New York University's Tandon School of Engineering, reported that Trump and his reelection campaign had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Facebook advertisements to push for his defense. More than 1,800 ads on Trump's Facebook page that mentioned "impeachment" had run the week prior, and had been viewed between 16–18 million times on Facebook. The analysis indicates that the campaign spent between $600,000 and $2 million on the ads, which reportedly attempted to rally and enlist people for the "Official Impeachment Defense Task Force". A further $700,000 is believed to have been spent for ads on Pence's Facebook page, which mirrored the content on Trump's.

The White House officially responded to the impeachment proceedings in a letter from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to House Speaker Pelosi that it would cease all cooperation with the investigation due to a litany of concerns, including that there had been no vote of the full House, and the secrecy of the proceedings. In the October 8 letter, the White House officially declined to cooperate with what they claimed was an illegitimate effort "to overturn the results of the 2016 election". The eight-page letter said the investigation "violates the Constitution, the rule of law, and every past precedent". House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded to the letter stating that "The White House should be warned that continued efforts to hide the truth of the president's abuse of power from the American people will be regarded as further evidence of obstruction."

In a press briefing on October 17, White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said the military aid to Ukraine was withheld in part to push the new government in Kyiv to explore unproven allegations against the Democratic National Committee and the 2016 election, undermining repeated denials by Trump of a quid pro quo. After media reports of these comments circulated, Republicans joined Trump's aides and legal counsel in distancing themselves from his remarks. Later that same day, Mulvaney issued a statement criticizing the media for their coverage of his comments and denying his earlier remarks, reiterating that there was "no quid pro quo" regarding the withheld aid and requests to investigate the Democrats' behavior during the 2016 election.

Trump

Donald Trump @realDonaldTrump

"... If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal." Pastor Robert Jeffress, @FoxNews

September 29, 2019

Donald Trump @realDonaldTrump

So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights. All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching. But we will WIN!

October 22, 2019

Trump took to Twitter, attacking opponents and praising supporters. He suggested that Representative Schiff, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, could be arrested for treason, and that a Second American Civil War would occur if he were removed from office. Trump also falsely described the impeachment inquiry as "a coup, intending to take away the power of [the] people, their vote, [and] their freedoms," and said the Democrats were "wasting everyone's time and energy on bullshit". He used further incendiary rhetoric to describe the inquiry through Twitter, stating that "All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching! But we will WIN!"

Trump told supporters at a private event on September 26 that the whistleblower's actions were close to that of a spy, saying, "You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now." The remarks were recorded and reported by the Los Angeles Times and interpreted as implying execution. On September 30, Trump said "we're trying to find out" who the whistleblower was.

On October 3, Trump told reporters that in addition to Ukraine, China should also investigate the Bidens. Vice President Pence echoed his support later the same day.

Whistleblowers and their lawyers

Mark Zaid, co-counsel for the whistleblower, said in a statement in September 2019 that the individual's identity must be protected by law and cited testimony by Maguire which drew upon the Whistleblower Protection Act. The statement was released after Trump questioned the validity of the whistleblower's statements on Twitter. Another lawyer for the whistleblower took to Twitter to issue a warning on September 30, that the whistleblower is entitled to anonymity, is protected by laws and policies, and is not to be retaliated against; to do so would violate federal law.

Andrew Bakaj, the lead attorney representing the whistleblowers, sent a joint letter to Maguire on September 28, and made public on September 29, in which they raised concerns about the language used by Trump, amongst other things. In the letter the lawyers state "The events of the past week have heightened our concerns that our client's identity will be disclosed publicly and that, as a result, our client will be put in harm's way." The letter also mentioned the $50,000 "bounty" that two conservative Trump supporters have offered as a reward for information about the whistleblower.

Politicians

Representative John Lewis says on September 24, 2019, "The time to begin impeachment proceedings, against this president, has come."

A majority of House members voted in favor of initiation of the impeachment inquiry, including 231 Democrats, and one independent, Justin Amash from Michigan, who left the Republican Party on July 4, 2019, in the wake of his protests about holding Trump accountable. Amash became a leading supporter of impeachment after the whistleblower report was released, saying the call script was a "devastating indictment of the president".

Republicans have largely focused their complaints on the inquiry process, particularly on the use of closed-door hearings, which they allege are secret Democratic hearings closed to Republicans. Forty-eight Republicans are members of the three committees jointly holding the hearings and thus are entitled to attend the hearings, and dozens have done so. In response to Republican complaints, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff pointed out that past impeachment inquiries began with an investigation by an independent prosecutor appointed by the Justice Department—the Watergate investigators in the case of Richard Nixon and the Whitewater prosecutors regarding Bill Clinton. "Unlike in past impeachment proceedings in which Congress had the benefit of an investigation conducted in secret by an independent prosecutor, we must conduct the initial investigation ourselves," Schiff said. "This is the case because the Department of Justice under Bill Barr expressly declined to investigate this matter after a criminal referral had been made."

For impeachment inquiry

A notable Republican critic of Trump is Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, who called Trump's actions "troubling in the extreme" and "wrong and appalling". Romney said it strained credulity to say that Trump's actions were anything other than politically motivated.

Phil Scott, the governor of Vermont, became the first Republican governor to support the impeachment inquiry. Charlie Baker, the Republican governor of Massachusetts, also announced his support. Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan later announced his support for an inquiry, though clarifying he did not yet support impeachment itself.

On October 18, John Kasich, a former Ohio governor and a CNN political commentator since January 2019, publicly said President Trump should be impeached. Until this point, he had argued that there was not enough evidence to impeach the President.

Against impeachment inquiry

Senator Lindsey Graham criticized the whistleblower, calling the complaint hearsay and a sham. On October 24, Graham proposed a Senate resolution (S. Res 378) urging the House to hold a formal vote to initiate the impeachment inquiry, which 50 Republican senators cosponsored. Several Republican politicians, including Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio and former Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, who had been stout defenders of congressional oversight during the Obama Administration and the Investigation into the 2012 Benghazi attack, joined Trump's resistance to the investigation.

On October 23, more than two dozen Republican members of the House—led by Matt Gaetz and with Trump's prior knowledge and assent—staged a protest against impeachment proceedings by entering a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility where a hearing was about to commence, some carrying cellphones in violation of security protocols. The protest caused a five hour stand-off during which the House Sergeant at Arms was summoned to intervene. Days earlier, Gaetz—who is not a member of any of the three committees—had entered the hearings and was instructed to leave after a parliamentarian ruling.

Legal professionals and academics

Historians and diplomats called the severity of the allegations "unprecedented" in American history. A group of 17 former Watergate special prosecutors published an opinion piece in the Washington Post in which they said that the public record contains prima facie evidence that Trump had committed impeachable acts.

Some academics responded to tweets by Trump in which he quoted a longtime evangelical pastor who warned of a "civil war" if Democrats continued the inquiry. On Twitter, Harvard Law School professor John Coates cautioned that the tweet was an independent basis for impeachment as the sitting president was threatening civil war if Congress exercised its constitutionally authorized power. A fellow faculty member of Harvard Law, Laurence Tribe, agreed but cautioned that, due to the typical tone of Trump's tweets, the statement could be interpreted as "typical Trumpian bloviating" that would not be taken seriously or literally.

Academic historian Kevin Kruse took issue with Trump's assertion that the Democrats would be solely responsible if he were removed from office through the impeachment process. Kruse said that for the U.S. Senate to remove Trump from office, 20 Republicans would need to join the 45 Democrats and two Independents, and blaming only the Democrats was both "dangerous" and "dumb".

USA Today's Supreme Court correspondent Richard Wolf published an overview of the opinions of various legal experts, including law professors. The University of Texas's Sanford Levinson says that "nobody really knows" how to define the "high crimes and misdemeanors" of the Constitution's impeachment clause. According to Georgetown University's Randy Barnett, "The Constitution gets violated all the time. That doesn't make the violation of the Constitution a high crime or misdemeanor." Barnett further states that Trump's accusers "have been alleging impeachable offenses since before [he] took the oath of office". The University of Southern California's Orin Kerr says that "It's about abusing the office, not about violating a technical provision of a particular clause," and "[Trump is] taking care of himself, not taking care of the country."

Public opinion

Polling has indicated that Americans have begun to lean towards supporting the impeachment inquiry since October 2019. On average, 52% of Americans support the inquiry as of October 2019. CNN's Enten states, however, that, "All these polls showed movement within the margin of error", and have stabilized in the low 50th percentile. Polling analysis by FiveThirtyEight states that, among the public, support for impeachment exists in the 80th percentile for Democrats, 10th percentile for Republicans, and 40th percentile for independents. The New York Times correctly predicted the October shift in polling results.

A YouGov poll on September 24, 2019, found that 55% would support impeachment and 26% would oppose if Trump was confirmed to have pressured the Ukrainian government, a hypothetical scenario at the time that the Trump administration admitted to on October 17, 2019. A Marist Poll for NPR and PBS around the same timeframe found that a 50–46 plurality approved of the House's decision to start an impeachment inquiry. A Politico / Morning Consult poll released shortly after Pelosi announced her support for the inquiry found support for impeachment increased seven percentage points compared to the poll of the previous week. A Business Insider poll on September 27, found that 45% supported an impeachment inquiry while 30% opposed. A September 30 Quinnipiac University poll found that 56 percent of those polled thought members of Congress who support impeaching President Trump are doing so more on the basis of partisan politics than on the basis of the facts.

A poll by The Economist / YouGov from October 16, 2019, stated that most Americans who support impeachment also support removals. In addition, it noted that a significant amount of Americans (70% of Republicans, 38% of independents, and 13% of Democrats) believe a deep state is trying to obstruct or unseat President Trump. An October 17 poll from the Pew Research Center found 54% in favor of impeachment and 44% opposed.

Polling of support for the impeachment inquiry among Americans

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Sample size	Margin of error	Support	Oppose	Undecided
September 2019
Monmouth University	Sep 23–29	1161	± 2.9%	49%	43%	7%
Politico / Morning Consult	Sep 24–26	1640	± 2.0%	43%	43%	13%
NPR / PBS NewsHour / Marist	Sep 25	864	± 4.6%	49%	46%	5%
Hill / HarrisX	Sep 26–27	1003	± 3.1%	47%	42%	11%
CBS News / YouGov	Sep 26–27	2059	± 2.3%	42%	36%	22%
Reuters / Ipsos	Sep 26–30	1917	± 2.6%	45%	43%	12%
Quinnipiac University	Sep 27–29	1115	± 3.6%	47%	47%	6%
Politico / Morning Consult	Sep 27–30	2488	± 2.0%	46%	43%	11%
October 2019
USA Today / Ipsos	Oct 1–2	1006	± 3.5%	45%	38%	17%
Washington Post / George Mason	Oct 1–6	1007	± 3.5%	58%	38%	4%
Pew Research	Oct 1–13	3487	± 2.2%	54%	44%	-
NPR / PBS NewsHour / Marist	Oct 3–8	1123	± 3.4%	52%	43%	5%
The Wall Street Journal / NBC News	Oct 4–6	800	± 3.46%	55%	39%	6%
Fox News	Oct 6–8	1003	± 3.0%	55%	40%	5%
Politico / Morning Consult	Oct 7–8	1991	± 2.0%	50%	44%	6%
Quinnipiac University	Oct 11–13	1995	± 3.5%	46%	48%	7%
Politico / Morning Consult	Oct 11–13	1993	± 2%	50%	42%	8%
The Economist / YouGov	Oct 13–15	1136	± 3%	53%	40%	8%
Reuters / Ipsos	Oct 14–15	961	± 3.6%	44%	43%	12%
Quinnipiac University	Oct 17–21	1587	± 3.1%	55%	43%	3%
Emerson College	Oct 18–21	1000	± 3%	48%	44%	9%
Politico / Morning Consult	Oct 18–21	1989	± 2.0%	48%	42%	9%

Polling of support for removal of Trump from office among Americans

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Sample size	Margin of error	Support	Oppose	Undecided
September 2019
Monmouth University	Sep 23–29	1161	± 2.9%	44%	52%	5%
HuffPost/YouGov	Sep 24–26	1000	± 3.2%	47%	39%	14%
CNN / SSRS	Sep 24–29	1009	± 3.5%	47%	45%	8%
October 2019
Washington Post / George Mason	Oct 1–6	1007	± 3.5%	49%	44%	7%
Gallup	Oct 1–13	1526	± 3%	52%	46%	2%
NPR / PBS NewsHour / Marist	Oct 3–8	1123	± 3.4%	48%	48%	4%
The Wall Street Journal / NBC News	Oct 4–6	800	± 3.46%	43%	49%	8%
Fox News	Oct 6–8	1003	± 3.0%	51%	44%	5%
Politico / Morning Consult	Oct 7–8	1991	± 2.0%	50%	42%	7%
The Economist / YouGov	Oct 13–15	1136	± 3%	53%	40%	7%
CNN / SSRS	Oct 17–20	1003	± 3.7%	50%	43%	7%
Quinnipiac University	Oct 17–21	1587	± 3.1%	48%	46%	6%
Politico / Morning Consult	Oct 18–21	1989	± 2.0%	50%	42%	8%

See also

• Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
• Impeachment process against Richard Nixon
• Impeachment of Bill Clinton
• List of federal political scandals in the United States

External links

• Memorandum of July 25, 2019, telephone conversation between President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
• Trump-is–Ukraine whistleblower complaint, August 12, 2019