A crucial cache of evidence in hand, House Democrats moved quickly on Thursday with an impeachment inquiry they said would be focused tightly on President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, using an incendiary whistle-blower complaint as a road map for their investigation.
The complaint landed like a bombshell on Capitol Hill on Thursday morning after its release by the House Intelligence Committee, and Democrats quickly seized on its narrative of allegations against Mr. Trump — chock-full of potentially damning detail, intriguing threads and characters who could become witnesses in the nascent inquiry — as an outline for their work.
After months of plodding investigating to determine whether they had grounds to impeach Mr. Trump, Democrats were working feverishly to build a case on the Ukraine matter, with some lawmakers saying they could move within a month or six weeks, possibly drafting articles of impeachment by the end of October.
“This is a cover-up,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, who after months of resisting the move made it clear that she was determined to follow through with a formal impeachment inquiry.
She read aloud from a portion of the document describing an attempt by White House officials to quickly “lock down” records of a phone call in which Mr. Trump asked the Ukrainian president to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. The complaint detailed charges that the president “is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election,” and that officials took pains to conceal evidence of that effort.
“We are at a different level of lawlessness that is clear to the American people,” Ms. Pelosi said.
The speaker said the growing impeachment case would be centered around the Ukraine matter and investigative action mostly lodged in the House Intelligence Committee, which first received and publicized the complaint.
The House Judiciary Committee, which has been leading the charge on impeachment for months, is now expected to temporarily idle the public components of its investigation of obstruction of justice and abuse of power. That inquiry focused on the findings of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel who investigated Russia’s election interference in 2016, and the president’s attempts to disrupt his work. Those topics could be resurrected if and when the committee drafts impeachment articles, however.
The Intelligence Committee was quickly lining up investigative targets. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Adam B. Schiff, the committee’s chairman, said that the complaint provided a clear “road map” for congressional investigators in the coming weeks and that his committee would work through Congress’s two-week recess that begins on Friday.
Read More...
Complaint in Hand, Democrats Aim for a Fast, and Focused, Impeachment Inquiry
Current News
Elon Musk X’s new DM feature, XChat, is rolling out in beta
XChat will reportedly include end-to-end encryption, vanishing mode, the ability to mark messages as unread, and file sharing. Read more
Biden says: “I’m Mentally Incompetent, Can’t Walk, And I Could Beat The Hell Outta Tapper and Trump”
Biden said. “I don’t have any regrets.” Read more
REPORT: Barron Trump has an apolitical girlfriend at NYU
[Barron reportedly] does have friends, he just screws the limelight. Read more
Warhawk Senator Graham made Ukraine visited to discuss Ukraine-USA business relations
Online users immediately reacted to the news, recalling Graham’s role during the 2014 coup in Ukraine. Read more
MIT closes diversity and inclusion office following 18-months-long assessment
Decision comes after the elite university eliminated diversity pledges in hiring processes. Read more
‘It’s never been a better time to date as a conservative’: Meet the NYC singles looking for the ‘right’ stuff — and to Make America Hot Again
The hottest pickup line in singles bars today? “Hi, I’m MAGA.” Read more