The main contending issue is the Democrats’ allegation that Trump tried to leverage a White House meeting and military aid, sought by Ukraine to combat Russian military aggression, to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch an investigation of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, as well as a probe of an unfounded theory that Kyiv conspired with Democrats to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
Here are the latest developments:
House Panel to Open Debate on Trump Articles (7 a.m.)
The Judiciary Committee will take a historic step Wednesday night when it begins considering two articles of impeachment seeking to remove Trump from office for abusing his power and obstructing Congress.
The 41-member panel meets at 7 p.m. to start debating what are now two narrowly written articles focusing on the Ukraine controversy. The hearing is expected to go for several hours, then reconvene Thursday morning and continue through the afternoon, or perhaps longer.
The aim is to finalize wording on articles that would be sent to the floor for a vote next week by the full House. The process may involve debate and votes on dozens of proposed amendments from both sides of the aisle -- including to sort out disagreements among Democrats on whether to broaden the resolution’s focus.
As written now, the nine-page resolution announced by Democrats Tuesday accuses Trump of having “abused the powers of the presidency by ignoring and injuring national security and other vital interests to obtain an improper personal political benefit,” and for obstructing Congress’s inquiry into those alleged actions.
That approach is favored by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler and other top Democrats who want to focus narrowly on Trump’s Ukraine dealings to avoid potentially protracted House floor debate on other issues.
Some House Democrats want to include findings from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian election-meddling, including a potential additional article citing obstruction of justice. That would better establish a pattern of misconduct by Trump, those Democrats contend.
In the impeachment inquiries into Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, the Judiciary Committee held several days of public, televised sessions to debate the articles. In 1974, the committee took six days to debate and pass articles against Nixon, who resigned before the full House could vote. In 1998, the Judiciary Committee considered articles to impeach Clinton for three days. He was impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate.
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