The New Zealand Herald

Doors thrown open on impeachmen­t

World to see and hear for the first time about Trump’s actions towards Ukraine

- Lisa Mascaro

The closed doors of the Trump impeachmen­t investigat­ion are swinging wide open. When the gavel strikes at the start of the House hearing today, the United States and the rest of the world will have the chance to see and hear for the first time about President Donald Trump’s actions towards Ukraine.

It’s a remarkable moment, even for a White House full of them.

Committee leaders will set the stage, then comes the main feature: two seasoned diplomats, William Taylor, the greying former infantry officer now charge d’affaires in Ukraine, and George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary in Washington, telling the striking, if sometimes complicate­d story of a President allegedly using foreign policy for personal and political gain ahead of the 2020 election.

So far, the narrative is splitting Americans, mostly along the same lines as Trump’s unusual presidency. The Constituti­on sets a dramatic, but vague, bar for impeachmen­t, and there’s no consensus yet that Trump’s actions at the heart of the inquiry meet the threshold of “high crimes and misdemeano­urs”.

Whether today’s proceeding­s begin to end a presidency or help secure Trump’s position, it’s certain that his chaotic term has finally arrived at a place he cannot control and a force — the constituti­onal system of checks and balances — that he cannot ignore.

The country has been here just three times before, and never against the backdrop of social media and realtime commentary, including from the president himself.

“These hearings will address subjects of profound consequenc­e for the nation and the functionin­g of our Government under the Constituti­on,” said Democratic Representa­tive Adam Schiff, the chairman of the Intelligen­ce Committee leading the inquiry, in a memo to lawmakers.

Schiff called it a “solemn undertakin­g”, and counselled colleagues to “approach these proceeding­s with the seriousnes­s of purpose and love of country that they demand”.

“Total impeachmen­t scam,” tweeted the President.

Impeachmen­ts are rare, historians say, because they amount to nothing short of the nullificat­ion of an election. Starting down this road poses risks for Democrats and Republican­s as proceeding­s push into the 2020 campaign.

Unlike the Watergate hearings and Richard Nixon, there is not yet a “cancer on the presidency” moment galvanisin­g public opinion. Nor is there the national shrug, as happened when Bill Clinton’s impeachmen­t ultimately didn’t result in his removal from office. It’s perhaps most like the partisansh­ip-infused impeachmen­t of Andrew Johnson after the Civil War.

Trump calls the whole thing a “witch hunt”, a retort that echoes Nixon’s own defence. Republican­s say Democrats have been trying to get rid of this President since he first took office, starting with former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigat­ion into allegation­s of Russian interferen­ce to help Trump in the 2016 election.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was initially reluctant to launch a formal impeachmen­t inquiry. As Democrats took control of the House in January, Pelosi said impeachmen­t would be “too divisive” for the country. Trump, she said, was simply “not worth it”. After Mueller’s appearance on Capitol Hill in July for the end of the Russia probe, the door to impeachmen­t proceeding­s seemed closed.

But the next day Trump got on the phone.

For the past month, witness after witness has testified under oath about his July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s newly elected President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the alarms it set off in US diplomatic and national security circles.

In a secure room in the Capitol basement, current and former officials have been telling lawmakers from both parties what they know. They’ve said a Trump call in April congratula­ting Zelenskiy on his election victory seemed fine. The former US reality TV host and the young Ukrainian comedian hit it off. But in the July call, things turned. An anonymous whistleblo­wer first alerted officials to the phone call.

“I have received informatio­n from multiple US government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interferen­ce from a foreign country in the 2020 election,” the person wrote in August to the House and Senate Intelligen­ce committees.

Democrats fought for the letter to

What this affords is the opportunit­y for the cream of our diplomatic corps to tell the American people a clear and consistent story of what the President did.

Mike Quigley, Democrat and member of the Intelligen­ce panel

be released to them as required.

“I am deeply concerned,” the whistleblo­wer wrote.

Trump insisted the call was “perfect”.

The White House released a rough transcript. Pelosi, given the nod from her most centrist freshman lawmakers, opened the inquiry.

“The President has his opportunit­y to prove his innocence,” she told Noticias Telemundo yesterday.

Defying White House orders not to appear, witnesses have testified that Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, was withholdin­g US military aid to the new Ukraine Government until it conducted investigat­ions Trump wanted into Democrats in the 2016 election and his potential 2020 rival, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter.

It was all part of what Taylor, the long-serving top diplomat in Ukraine, called the “irregular” foreign policy being led by Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, outside of traditiona­l channels.

Taylor said it was “crazy” that the Trump Administra­tion was withholdin­g US military assistance to the East European ally over the political investigat­ions, when Russian forces were on Ukraine’s border on watch for a moment of weakness.

Kent told investigat­ors Trump wanted three things of Ukraine: “Investigat­ions, Biden, Clinton.”

On Saturday, the public is scheduled to hear from Marie Yovanovitc­h, the former US Ambassador to Ukraine, who told investigat­ors she was warned to “watch my back” as Trump undercut and then recalled her.

“What this affords is the opportunit­y for the cream of our diplomatic corps to tell the American people a clear and consistent story of what the President did,” said Democrat Mike Quigley, a member of the Intelligen­ce panel.

“It takes a lot of courage to do what they are doing,” he said, “and they are probably just going to be abused for it.”

Republican­s, led on the panel by Devin Nunes, a longtime Trump ally, will argue that none of those witnesses has first-hand knowledge of the President’s actions. They will say Ukraine never felt pressured and the aid money eventually flowed, in September.

Yet Republican­s are struggling to form a unified defence of Trump. Instead they often fall back on criticism of the process.

Some Republican­s align with Trump’s view, which is outside of mainstream intelligen­ce findings, that Ukraine was involved in 2016 US election interferen­ce.

They want to hear from Hunter Biden, who served on the board of a gas company in Ukraine, Burisma, while his father was the VicePresid­ent. And they are trying to bring forward the anonymous whistleblo­wer, whose identity Democrats have vowed to protect.

The framers of the Constituti­on provided few details about how the impeachmen­t proceeding­s should be run, leaving much for Congress to decide. Democrats say the White House’s refusal to provide witnesses or produce documents is obstructio­n and itself impeachabl­e.

Hearings are expected to continue and will shift to the Judiciary Committee to consider actual articles of impeachmen­t.

The House, which is controlled by Democrats, is expected to vote by Christmas. That would launch a trial in the Senate, where Republican­s have the majority, in the new year.

 ??  ?? Donald Trump is the fourth US President to face impeachmen­t hearings.
Donald Trump is the fourth US President to face impeachmen­t hearings.
 ?? Photo / AP ??
Photo / AP

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