I don't think it's appropriate to ask a foreign government to investigate an American citizen. I reported it twice to my superiors. Thus begins the closed-door testimony that Colonel Alexander Vindman made today, Tuesday 29 October, before the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives. Vindman is part of the National Security Council; directly attended the July 25 call between Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and is the first to report to parliamentarians who are examining the charges against the American president. Trump would have put pressure on the Ukrainian leader Zelensky to obtain the reopening of a corruption investigation against Joe Biden's son. The American president would have threatened to block the military aid already promised in Kiev. The impeachment procedure is a turning point.
Yesterday, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, announced that on Thursday 31 October she will bring the resolution to the court to formalize the president's indictment. In recent history there are only two precedents. On 6 February 1974 the Chamber authorized the start of the investigation into the Watergate scandal. On August 9, Richard Nixon left the presidency before the House voted the motion to formalize the impeachment. On December 19, 1998, the House adopted the same request against Bill Clinton, accused of lying about his relationship with Monica Lewinski. On February 12, 1999, the democratic president was acquitted by the Senate. The procedure is regulated directly by the Constitution (article 2, section 4): the president can be removed if found guilty of treason, corruption and other serious crimes and misdeeds.
Two phases: the House votes by majority vote to determine if the conditions for impeachment exist. The final judgment belongs to the Senate which decides with the quorum of two thirds. At the moment the House is controlled by the Democrats, while the Senate is in the hands of the Republicans. Nancy Pelosi's decision takes us to a new scenario. For more than a month, three House Commissions have been teaching the dossier on the President's indictment behind closed doors. This is a legitimate but politically controversial procedure. Until yesterday, the White House and Republicans have been able to argue that it was a way to keep Trump at bay without good reason. In recent days a large group of Republican deputies had protested in a resounding manner, occupying for half a day the spaces of the reserved auditions. Pelosi, therefore, wanted to clear the field, probably speeding up the initial program. Already today and tomorrow the Commissions will discuss the resolution and then on Thursday 31 October all the deputies will have to pronounce themselves with an open vote. The objective of the Speaker is to bring the charges against Trump into the center of public attention. The president responded via Twitter this morning, alluding to Vindman, but without mentioning him as an adversary: How many of these "Never Trumpers" will be allowed to testify about a perfect phone call, when everyone should simply read the call transcript? It's a witch hunt.