
Share
25th September 2019
01:16pm BST

Complicating the matter even further is Ukraine's current relationship with Russia. Since 2014, Crimea in Eastern Ukraine has been annexed and governed by Russia, and Ukraine relies on US military aid to combat Russian incursion in the region. Donald Trump's relationship with Russia and Vladimir Putin has already been the subject of investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who refused to absolve the president of wrongdoing.
Trump also sought to block the whistleblower complaint from being shared with agencies of the intelligence community. The relevant whistle-blower law says that such complaints must be passed to the congressional intelligence committees within seven days. 16 days later, congress still hasn't seen the complaint.
This development has prompted dozens of more centrist Democrats to back long-standing calls by the party's left-wing to begin impeachment proceedings against the president.
What happens next?
Donald Trump has agreed to provide the transcript of his phone call with Zelensky, and has denied any wrongdoing.
"I am currently at the United Nations representing our country, but have authorized the release tomorrow of the complete, fully declassified and un-redacted transcript of my phone conversation with President Zelensky of Ukraine," he tweeted on Tuesday.
"You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call."
UPDATE: The White House has since released the transcript, in which Trump explicitly asks Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. There is no mention of aid being withheld, although the transcript covers just four pages worth of a 30 minute conversation.
The transcript also sees Trump urging Zelensky to liaise with US Attorney General William Barr, and his own personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1176860253448802305?s=20The White House has also said that it will make the whistle-blower's complaint available to Congress, and may allow the whistle-blower — a member of the US intelligence community — to meet with members of the House.
The substance of these documents will decide the next step in the inquiry. If there is sufficient evidence that Pelosi feels she can win a vote on Trump's impeachment, then she'll likely call for one. Currently, Democrats hold the majority in the House of Representatives by 235 to 198, with one Independent.
Impeachment itself does not remove an official from office, rather it leaves the official open to conviction by the Senate. This conviction would entail removal from office.
So does this mean the end of Donald Trump's presidency? Well, no, probably not. If the House of Representatives does eventually vote to impeach Donald Trump, articles of impeachment will then be forwarded to the Senate. Once the matter reaches the Senate, a super-majority is required to convict the president, meaning that 66 of the 100 elected Senators must find against the president. As things stand, Trump's Republican Party has a majority of 53 in the Senate, against 45 Democrats and two Independents (one of whom is Bernie Sanders). Throughout Trump's tenure as president, members of his own party have almost never voted against his wishes, suggesting that they would be unlikely to do so on articles of impeachment. In this case, a minimum of 19 Republican senators would have to vote against the president. For example, Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives in the 1990s when it transpired that he had lied under oath about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Articles of impeachment were forwarded to the Senate, which declined to convict him. The only other president to be impeached by the House of Representatives, Andrew Johnson in 1868, was also spared conviction by the Senate by just one vote. Impeachment has played an important role in the end of presidencies, however. It was the threat of impeachment that saw Richard Nixon become the only president ever to resign the office. It is possible that the impeachment proceedings will damage Donald Trump's campaign for re-election, but those in Trump's camp maintain the message that this process will only energise his base, and help him in the long-run.Explore more on these topics:

Politics | Joe.ie
politics