Democrats to lay out rules for Trump impeachment

By James Reinl

NEW YORK (AA) - The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote this week on a Democratic resolution that will lay out the next steps in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump over his dealings with Ukraine.

In a statement Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the resolution would set out the terms for a controversial inquiry into whether Trump, a Republican, used U.S. military aid to pressure Ukraine into helping discredit his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

“This resolution establishes the procedure for hearings that are open to the American people, authorizes the disclosure of deposition transcripts, outlines procedures to transfer evidence to the Judiciary Committee as it considers potential articles of impeachment, and sets forth due process rights for the President and his counsel,” Pelosi said in the statement.

The vote in the Democrat-run House is set for Thursday. The Trump administration has said it will not cooperate with the probe. Last week, some two dozen House Republicans stormed a closed-door deposition of the inquiry.

“We are taking this step to eliminate any doubt as to whether the Trump administration may withhold documents, prevent witness testimony, disregard duly authorized subpoenas, or continue obstructing the House of Representatives,” added Pelosi.

House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry against Trump on Sept. 24 following claims by a whistle-blower that the president had sought to pressure Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 U.S. presidential elections.

In a July 25 phone call, Trump allegedly made about $400 million in military aid contingent on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky launching a probe into Biden and his son, Hunter, a businessman, over unsubstantiated corruption allegations.

The elder Biden is a leading candidate in the race to win the Democratic nomination and challenge Trump in 2020.

Trump has accused Democrats of time-wasting and says the inquiry amounts to a “lynching.”