In the Ukraine affair, US Democrats have presented their plans for public witness questioning in the House of Representatives. After several witnesses were heard behind closed doors in recent weeks, public hearings are now scheduled to take place in the Secretariat of the Congress Chamber. The Republicans of President Donald Trump can then summon their own witnesses.
In a next phase, the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives will deal with the collected evidence. The White House will then be able to challenge the evidence and provide its own evidence. If the allegations against Trump are sufficiently substantiated, the committee should formulate charges, which the House of Representatives should then vote in plenary.
If the democratically dominated House of Representatives - impeachment - raise against Trump, then the Senate would have to decide on a possible impeachment. However, Trump's Republicans are in the majority in this congressional chamber.
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As part of their investigation into possible impeachment Trump, Democrats in the House of Representatives have already questioned ten witnesses over the past five weeks. The hearings were held in camera. The Republicans accuse the Democrats of secrecy because of this - although republican MPs attended the hearings.
The House of Representatives is to vote on the further procedure presented on Thursday. So far, the Republicans have also called the investigation unlawful because it was not preceded by a vote in the House of Representatives.
The House wants to vote for the next phase of our inquiry. Americans want to hear about the president's abuse of power firsthand. I gather Republican Leaders do not actually want that after all. #TruthExposed https://t.co/tUeHeT6Ezj
- Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) October 29, 2019The White House said on Tuesday it still considered the procedure unlawful. "The Impeachment of the Democrats was from the outset an illegitimate fraud, because it had no adequate authorization by a vote in the House of Representatives," said Trump's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham. The new procedures would not change the fact that Democrats in the House of Representatives would not comply with basic rule of law.
The US Democrats accuse Trump of having abused his presidency in order to obtain potentially compromising material from Ukraine about the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
US officer charges Trump in Ukraine
In the affair, Tuesday, an official white house adviser charged the US president for the first time: Ukrainian-born US citizen and decorated Iraq war veteran Alexander Vindman was the first White House employee to oppose Trump's statement, not in the investigation to testify against the impeachment proceedings against him.
Vindman appeared on Tuesday for a non-public statement to Congressmen. In the draft for his inaugural statement, which was made public in advance, he expressed great concern over Trump's telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj, which is at the center of the Ukrainian affair. His concerns he had reported to a supervisor, it said.