Ground shifted rapidly on impeachment probe.
Ukraine scandal gave Pelosi opening to move
WASHINGTON – After more than two years of jousting over President Donald Trump’s conduct, the ground has shifted in Congress and a move toward impeachment has broken free of constraints.
That does not mean the path ahead is all set.
Last month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – who for months had been a powerful brake on restive Democrats wanting to impeach Trump – launched a formal inquiry toward that end, accusing the president of “betrayal of his oath of office,” betrayal of national security and betrayal of the integrity of American elections.
A look at the matter and what’s known about what happens next:
❚ Next steps: Six House committees are investigating various aspects of alleged impropriety by the president, with the intelligence committee taking the lead in examining Trump’s actions with Ukraine.
The investigations are on an expedited basis, though with no specific deadline.
Ultimately, the House Judiciary Committee would be the panel responsible for recommending any articles of impeachment against Trump.
If the panel backs impeachment articles, the matter goes to the full House for a vote. Democrats control the House and its committees.
If a majority of the full House votes for impeachment, the matter goes to the Senate, which is responsible for holding a trial, overseen by Chief Justice John Roberts. It takes a two-thirds vote in the Senate to force a president from office.
Impeaching a president is often misunderstood to mean his removal. It actually means the House has voted to bring one or more articles of impeachment and send the process forward. No president has been ousted by impeachment.
❚ Democrats break impasse: Some Democrats in Congress have long wanted to kick-start the constitutional process to remove Trump, despite the slim odds of success. But they lacked a critical mass and Pelosi’s support.
Trump’s machinations to avoid culpability from the Russia investigation fed into their push, but that inquiry came to an indistinct conclusion. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report detailed troubling episodes of presidential misbehavior, but stopped short of recommending charges for obstructing justice or conspiring with Moscow to tip the 2016 U.S. election to Trump.
In a nutshell: There’s little doubt Trump pressed Ukraine to conduct a corruption investigation of Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden and his son – the president has defiantly stated that he did. He also acknowledged that days before a phone conversation with Ukraine’s leader in July, he ordered military aid to Ukraine to be frozen.
The episode raises the possibility that a president used the power of his office to get a foreign government to help him win reelection.
Trump denies doing or saying anything improper.