FIRST IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY VOTE SET
WASHINGTON — House Democrats are laying the groundwork for the next phase of their impeachment inquiry with a vote this week on a resolution to affirm the investigation, set rules for public hearings and outline the potential process for writing articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a vote on the resolution, which would be the first formal House vote on the impeachment inquiry. It aims to nullify complaints from Trump and his allies — amplified last week when Republicans stormed a secure room used for impeachment interviews
— that the process is illegitimate, unfair and lacking in due process.
Despite the move toward a vote, Democrats insisted they weren’t yielding to Republican pressure. Pelosi dismissed the White House’s argument that impeachment requires an authorizing vote as having “no merit.” She noted a federal judge agreed with Democrats in a ruling last week.
Trump has cited the lack of a House vote as a reason to refuse cooperation with the impeachment investigation. In the wake of Pelosi’s announcement, the White House said nothing had changed.
Pelosi “is finally admitting what the rest of America already knew — that Democrats were conducting an unauthorized impeachment proceeding, refusing to give the President due process, and their secret, shady, closed door depositions are completely and irreversibly illegitimate,” said White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.
Official to testify he reported concerns about Trump’s pressure
Meanwhile, a military officer at the National Security Council twice raised concerns over the Trump administration’s push to have Ukraine investigate Democrats and
Joe Biden, according to testimony the official is prepared to deliver Tuesday in the House impeachment inquiry.
Alexander Vindman, an Army lieutenant colonel who served in Iraq and, later, as a diplomat, is prepared to tell House investigators that he listened to Trump’s July 25 call with new Ukraine President Volodymr Zelensky and reported his concerns to the NSC’s lead counsel.
“I was concerned by the call,” Vindman will say, according to prepared testimony obtained Monday night by The Associated Press. “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.”