A whistle-blower complaint regarding a July 25th phone conversation between American President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has led to the beginning of the impeachment process by the House.
The complaint discussed Trump’s pressuring of Ukrainian leaders to interfere with the 2020 Presidential Elections by providing information about Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who spent time working in Ukraine. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi along with other House Democrats stated that they had begun the impeachment process concerning Trump’s potential abuse of power which broke presidential policies.
The transcript of the phone call between the two leaders was released by the Trump organization after it was discovered the administration had been moving various phone transcripts from one computer system to another over the course of the Trump presidency.
The head of the United States Intelligence Community disobeyed the one week report requirement and withheld the information of the complaint due to its content The reasoning for this was that it contained some of the president’s personal information (of which he was unsure if he could share). According to a statement released by the White House it is “solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive — rather than national security sensitive — information.”
Officials conclude Trump’s action in pressuring the Ukrainian leaders for information on Biden was for his own personal gain. He allegedly told his Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney to freeze an aid package worth hundreds of millions of dollars before conversing with Zelensky. House Democrats maintain that this is an example of quid pro quo or “a favor or advantage granted or expected in return for something.”
After the phone call the Trump Administration attempted to cover up the abuse of power, which prompted various White House staff members to inform the whistleblower of their concerns. The currently unnamed whistleblower contacted North Carollina Senator Richard Burr, and Representative Adam Schiff in a nine page document dubbed “The Whistle-Blower Complaint”.
Over the coming months the House will continue the impeachment process in order to obtain accurate information on Trump’s actions, involving this alleged misuse of presidential power.
