As of a few weeks ago, the nation has been standing by awaiting updates on the official impeachment inquiry of Mr. Donald J. Trump. Both the news and social media have been going on and on about what happened, who did it, and what this means for the future of our country but because all this jib-jab can get confusing, I'm here to dumb it down for you.
On August 12th, 2019, an anonymous intelligence official filed a formal whistle-blower report which stated there were things going on in the White House of inappropriate, unethical, and unlawful nature. The inspector general of the intelligence community, Mr. Michael Atkinson, deemed this threat to be credible, leading to the announcement of an official impeachment inquiry on September 24th, 2019 by house speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
The whistle-blower's report began by announcing the reason for coming forward was because the president was using his office and power to intimidate foreign governments into meddling in the United States' election of 2020 with the help of his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. This was specifically referring to a phone call that Trump had on July 25th with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.
To Trump, it was, "a perfect call," but the transcripts of that call seemed to provide a reason as to why that may not be the case. The two men were discussing the aid the United States has been sending to Ukraine and Mr. Zelensky had brought up Ukraine almost being prepared to buy more Javelins, (anti-tank missiles), from the U.S. Perhaps the most damning line of the transcript came when in response to this, President Trump replied with, "I would like you to do us a favor, though," and proceeded to ask the Ukrainian President to investigate former vice president, Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
The reason behind asking that the Bidens be investigated, is that in 2014, Hunter Biden joined the board of directors at Burisma Holdings, an energy company in Ukraine. The owners of this company were accused of tax evasion, fraud and money laundering. The prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, was later forced out of office and Joe Biden boasted that it was because of his threat to withhold $1 billion unless Shokin was fired. Though there is no proof that this was a direct result of Shokin being in charge of the investigation into Hunter Biden's business, there is speculation that this threat was related, although Shokin had been described as, "corrupt" and, "ineffective."
As anyone who does not live under a rock knows, Joe Biden is currently a front-running democratic candidate in the presidential race for 2020. Trump asking the foreign leader to investigate the Bidens can obviously be linked to this fact, and therefor displays the intention of using this information from a foreign power to influence Biden's status in the election.
Though this in and of itself seems to be enough to prove that Donald Trump clearly is using the power of his office to intimidate foreign powers, it was released that prior to this call, Trump had frozen nearly $400 million in federal aid to Ukraine. This, paired with the quote from the transcript of the call, can indubitably lead to the assumption that this was indeed, Trump suggesting the release of this aid in return, or quid pro quo.
Where does Rudy Giuliani play into this? He admitted to the New York Times that in early August, he had gone to Ukraine to meet with officials where he asked them to, "just investigate the darn things." He was then subpoenaed, (summoned to court), by the house and asked to turn over all documents relating to the president's request to have the Bidens investigated by Ukraine.
In addition to all of this even still, the whistle-blower report continues on to say that not only was the call inappropriate and unethical, but the Trump administration must have known about it due to the extensive measures to hide the call that were taken. The server the call was placed on was so highly classified that it is typically reserved for codeword-level intelligence, such as communication during the Osama bin Laden search in Pakistan back in 2011.
Since the first week of the impeachment inquiry, republicans are doing their part to work on some damage control, but the evidence and testimonies are piling against President Trump. Rudy Giuliani took to CNN to try and get the situation under wraps, but it seems he may have done more damage than good when he contradicted himself by saying he had not asked Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, then not even two minutes later, saying, "of course I did!" Along with this, president Trump has been on offense while over the course of the weekend that the whistle-blower's report was released, he had tweeted over 150 times, mostly denying accusations and asserting new ones. The republican party seems to be shaking, but as of now, there is no telling what the next couple weeks will uncover, so until the house makes a decision, we are left to decide on our own.
