US: Democrats to open an official impeachment inquiry against Trump

Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared on September 25 that the House of Representatives will open an official impeachment inquiry into the United States President, Donald Trump. The recent turn of events is followed by a complaint of a whistleblower about the US President pressuring the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to initiate an investigation into former Vice President, Joe Biden's son. President Trump had also admitted yesterday that he had a word with the Ukrainian President. He further claimed that even though he was currently busy in representing the US at the United Nations, he would authorize the release the transcript of his conversation with the Ukrainian leader.

However, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made a statement that the President's actions have “seriously violated the Constitution”. 

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Impeachment inquiry 

In case of opening an official Impeachment inquiry, the House Judiciary Committee sets an investigation on the evidence that is available against the federal official to move ahead. It is upon the discretion of the members of the House if they want to write articles of impeachment to present in front of the house for a vote on impeachment.

Fundamentally, Impeachment is just the first stage of the process divided into two parts in the Constitution to prosecute and remove a President or any other federal official from the office. The House of Representatives has the power to impeach any official who commits a crime like bribery, treason or other misdemeanours from the office. However, the final decision still remains with the Senate to remove the President or any other official after holding a trial. More importantly, Impeachment is not a legal trial, but a political trial. In the present case of President Donald Trump, Pelosi believes that the recent actions count as the "betrayal of his oath in office". 

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President Trump's defence

As this announcement was made by Pelosi, the US President is attending the 74th United Nations General Assembly summit and he said that even on such an important day at UN, the democrats “had to ruin and demean it”. Donald Trump said the Democrats never even saw the transcript of the call. He further referred to these incidents as “a total witch hunt” and “presidential harassment”. In addendum to that, he also defended his case by saying that the Secretary of State Pompeo had received permission from the government of Ukraine to release the transcript of the telephone call. 

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