U.S. Democrats of the Lower House of Representatives have launched an impeachment inquiry into U.S President Donald Trump for his alleged involvement into seeking foreign help to smear Democratic rival John Biden ahead of next election in 2020. Congressional allies of Trump however accused democrats of playing politics with the decision.
The decision to impeach the President came on Tuesday after democratic lawmakers in the democratic-led lower house had a close-door meeting with its lawmakers. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the announcement of the inquiry.
“The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law,” said Pelosi, who for months had been reluctant to embrace an impeachment effort.
Trump quickly retorted the announcement, calling the inquiry a “Witch Hung garbage.”
According to Democrats and their reports, Donald Trump on July 25 made a call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, telling him to investigate into John Biden and his son who had worked for a company drilling for gas in Ukraine. Reportedly, Trump had also withheld $ 400 million U.S. aide to Ukraine as leverage to get Zelenskiy to launch a probe that would damage Biden, who leads opinion polls in the Democratic presidential race.
However, Trump, though acknowledged that he had a conversation about Biden, the Ukraine call was “totally appropriate”. Furthermore, he denied the accusation of withholding $400 million to Ukraine, even and has agreed to release the transcript of his phone call with the Ukrainian President.
“When you see the readout of the call, which I assume you’ll see at some point, you’ll understand. That call was perfect. It couldn’t have been nicer,” Trump told reporters at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
According to Pelosi, six congressional lawmakers are currently investigating into the case and will decide whether the House Judiciary Committee should draft articles of impeachment.
