The Impeachment is Heating Up

The past two weeks have spelled nothing but trouble for President Donald Trump. To pick up where we left off in the last edition of The Circle, House Democrats have continued collecting evidence and testimonies from individuals that were close to the matter involving corruption and abuse of power from the president and his cronies in Ukraine. 

On Oct. 22, Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat to Ukraine, described an explicit quid pro quo when he testified in front of impeachment investigators. It is almost all but confirmed that President Trump not only withheld military aid to Ukraine, but also refused to allow a White House meeting with Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, until he publicly announced an investigation into the corruption case against Joe Biden and his son Hunter. 

A week later, impeachment investigators brought in yet another crucial witness of the president’s wrongdoings, this time a decorated military officer, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. Colonel Vindmen is the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council who was on the infamous July 25 phone call between President Trump and President Zelensky. He not only corroborated the fact that Trump pushed Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden, but claims that the White House transcript of the call left out crucial details. He attempted to offer corrections to the transcript, but his appeals were largely rejected. 

Col. Vindman claims that Trump directly used the word “Burisma,” the name of the Ukrainian energy company that Hunter Biden worked for and told the president of Ukraine that there were recordings of Biden. Col. Vindman also went directly against Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s testimony by claiming, “I stated to Amb. Sondland that his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security, and that such investigations were not something the NSC was going to get involved in or push." Sondland previously testified that if anyone “harbored misgivings about the propriety of what we were doing, they never shared those misgivings with me, then or later.” Sondland is expected to clarify his previous statements, or risk being charged with perjury. 

To those that have been paying attention, it is not hard to see why our president might want to stir up an official investigation into his political rivals. For starters, while seated in the Oval Office for an exclusive interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, President Trump admitted that he would accept damaging information on other presidential candidates from foreigners and would not report it to the FBI. The question was asked in context with the FBI’s report that Russia interfered in the 2016 election in order to benefit Trump. Trump went on to say that the FBI director was wrong for saying that it should be reported if foreign actors offer information on political opponents. 

Some might also remember the investigations leading up to the 2016 election, making way for Trump’s most famous rallying cry against Hillary Clinton, “Lock her up!” Trump understood how damaging it was to attack an already vulnerable candidate, like Clinton, for her previous political misdeeds and on top of that, to have the FBI publicly announce reopening an investigation into her email scandal one week prior to the election. If it worked then, why not now? Especially after the Russia investigation where Trump got off scot free for ten possible instances of obstruction of justice, he was feeling good about himself. It is also true that Republicans are less likely to care about a president’s moral leadership, according to a 2018 Gallup poll, which might help explain why Trump’s approval rating has hovered around 40% for his entire presidency, not even damaged by imminent impeachment. 

Amid all of this chaos, President Trump seemed to score a victory when he announced on Sunday, October 27 that the leader of ISIS is dead after a raid by US special forces in northwest Syria. After fumbling through the press conference where he shared colorful details of the mission, some false and others classified, the president celebrated with some of his closest and most loyal associates by attending game 5 of the MLB World Series. Instead of receiving praise and applause for killing the world’s most-wanted terrorist, President Trump was met with resounding boos, a hearty “Lock him up!” chant, a well-placed “IMPEACH TRUMP!” banner, and several “Veterans for Impeachment” signs held up behind home plate.

  In another win for the Democrats, a federal judge recently declared that the impeachment investigation was legal and legitimate even without a formal vote in the House. On top of that, the judge also ordered secret grand jury evidence from Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation be handed over to the House Judiciary Committee, despite the efforts of Attorney General Barr to withhold this information.

So far, the Mueller documents have led us to understand how long Trump and his team has tried to push the narrative that it was Ukraine, not Russia that tried to influence the 2016 election by hacking the DNC server. This debunked theory was part of the Trump/Zelensky call on July 25 when President Trump mentions the American cybersecurity firm, Crowdstrike, that investigated the hacking of the DNC. Crowdstrike determined that Russia was behind the cyberattacks, a fact that was confirmed by the FBI. But Trump wanted Zelensky to look into them because he seemed to believe that the firm was Ukrainian-owned, may have framed Moscow, and has possession of a DNC-related server hidden in Ukraine. 

Thomas Bossert, Trump’s first homeland security advisor, has expressed concerns with his former boss’s attempt to push these conspiracy theories. In an ABC interview, Mr. Bossert said, "It's not only a conspiracy theory, it is completely debunked.” Mr. Bossert also said in reference to the White House’s obsession with discrediting the Russia investigation that, “if he continues to focus on that white whale, it's going to bring him down."

In an effort to appease Republicans complaining of a partisan and secretive sham investigation, House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, announced a formal vote on a resolution to affirm impeachment investigations. That vote was held this past Thursday on Halloween, where 232 members approved of the resolution and 196 opposed. The vote was bitterly divided by party lines, setting us up for a long showcase of partisan politics. Besides giving us a glimpse of a House divided, the resolution conveyed how this inquiry will move forward into its second phase by starting to publicly release transcripts of closed-door testimonies and the announcement of public hearings that are set to start in the coming weeks. 

Although Congress is currently on a weeklong break, the investigation will chug along with several witnesses set to be heard. As of yesterday, four White House officials have defied subpoenas by failing to appear for closed-door depositions, including top national security lawyer, John Eisenberg. Former national security advisor, John Bolton, has been asked to testify on Thursday in front of impeachment investigators. Witnesses have stated that Bolton, who would be the closest person to President Trump to testify, showed his disapproval of Trump’s side dealings with Ukraine. Bolton’s lawyer has stated that he will not testify voluntarily, which means we will have to see how he responds to a subpoena. House Intelligence Committee chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, has repeatedly expressed that failing to appear for depositions will “further add to the body of evidence on a potential obstruction of justice of Congress charge against the president.”