The US House of Representatives, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Dem.), officially announced they are launching a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump late yesterday. The attack on the President comes after about a week of an ongoing scandal that involves the President potentially threatening a foreign leader in order to undermine Joe Biden, Trump’s most likely (according to the polls) opponent in the 2020 elections.
The incident in question involves a phone call Trump made with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenski at the end of July. Reportedly, Trump told his team to stop a planned financial aid package that was supposed to go to Ukraine a few days before the call, then ended up discussing Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, who has business activities in Ukraine, during the call. Democrats suspect that Trump asked Zelenski to investigate Hunter Biden, using the financial aid as leverage, in the hopes of uncovering dirt for his political opponent. The whole affair sounds vaguely similar to what sparked the Russia investigation, where Trump was suspected of having accepted Russian intel on his then-opponent, Hillary Clinton.
There was a formal whistleblower complaint submitted, which triggered the whole scandal. According to the intelligence body familiar with its contents, it is alarming; however, the White House has so far prevented the complaint from being shared with the House of Representatives. Pelosi is currently working on releasing it.
The House Speaker said that the incident is worthy of an inquiry, and if Trump is found to have abused his powers, he ought to be impeached. Despite a number of scandals that have surrounded Trump since the beginning, Pelosi was careful not to talk about impeachment in the past. Nevertheless, this incident seems serious enough for someone as cautious as her to react.
There is no official timeline for the impeachment inquiry, but Democrats familiar with the issue said it will happen as quickly as possible.
Moreover, Donald Trump responded that he didn’t say anything improper on his phone call with Zelenski. He also agreed to release a transcript of the phone call, which may exonerate him.
The US stock markets reacted negatively to the impeachment inquiry announcement. However, past impeachment have not proved particularly dangerous for financial markets in the long-term.
