The impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, the incumbent president of the United States, was initiated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on September 24, 2019,after a whistle blower alleged that Trump may have abused the power of the presidency by withholding military aid as a means of pressuring newly elected president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to perform two favors:
to pursue investigations of Joe Biden and his son Hunter, and to investigate a conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind interference in the 2016 presidential election.
More than a week after Trump had put a hold on the previously approved military aid, he made the aforementioned requests in a July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president, which the whistle blower alleged was intended to help Trump’s reelection bid.
President Trump is the third U.S. president to have been impeached by the House. The two Wednesday votes on impeachment bring to an end the House’s months-long inquiry into whether Trump improperly pressured Ukraine to conduct investigations that would benefit him politically.
Trump tweets: “I want an immediate trial!”
President Trump just slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to hold off on transmitting the two articles of impeachment to the Senate and is now demanding an “immediate trial.”
“So after the Democrats gave me no Due Process in the House, no lawyers, no witnesses, no nothing, they now want to tell the Senate how to run their trial,” Trump tweeted.
Trump’s tweet comes after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer failed to reach an agreement today on the structure for the Senate trial, according to two senators and an aide, leaving the path for a bipartisan agreement in limbo as Congress breaks for the holidays.