WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st October, 2019) The US House of Representatives is expected to pass a resolution on Thursday that formally authorizes the ongoing impeachment probe against President Donald Trump although the White House has already threatened to ignore the outcome of the vote.
The resolution, crafted by Democrats, is largely in response to persistent complaints made by the Trump administration and the Republican Party that the impeachment process has not been authorized by a full House vote and has lacked transparency. The White House has repeatedly rejected all requests by lawmakers including subpoenas for materials and testimony from administration officials, prompting Democrats to accuse the White House of obstruction of justice.
The US constitution gives sole power of impeachment to the 435-seat House of Representatives, which is currently controlled by Democrats. The process is triggered when the House judiciary committee draws up articles of impeachment, which are analogous to a criminal indictment. However, the 100-member Senate, where Trump's Republicans have a majority, has sole power to try and remove the president once impeached.
For example, then-President Bill Clinton after being impeached by the House was acquitted by the Democratic-controlled Senate in a vote in February of 1999. In 1974, then-US President Richard Nixon decided to resign because he knew he lost the support of Congress and would be convicted and removed.
On September 24, House Democrats launched the impeachment inquiry over a whistleblower complaint that claimed Trump might have abused his power by allegedly pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a July 25 phone call to investigate potential corruption by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a letter on Monday said that the resolution is meant to affirm the ongoing, existing impeachment probe including all requests for documents and subpoenas for records and testimony.
The resolution, Pelosi added, establishes procedures and is designed to eliminate doubts as to whether the administration can refuse congressional requests. The measure also sets out due process rights for the president and his counsel, she added.
Democratic lawmakers have also said it lays a clear path to begin the public-facing phase of the impeachment inquiry which will include open congressional testimony.
On Tuesday, however, White House spokesperson Stephanie Grisham said the resolution does nothing to change the fundamental fact that House Democrats refuse to provide basic due process rights to the Trump administration.
Grisham claimed Pelosi had admitted the Democrats were conducting an unauthorized impeachment proceeding. The White House spokesperson also said the Democrats' closed door depositions are illegitimate.
On Wednesday, the White House Office of the Press Secretary issued a follow up statement condemning the entire impeachment process as a lawless fake procedure. It described Pelosi's impeachment resolution as "an illegitimate sham from the start" that lacked any proper authorization by a House vote.
A major part of the problem is that the US constitution does not clearly detail the process for impeaching a president. Meanwhile, several legal scholars have said impeachment is more of a political process than a legal one.
Hence, on the one hand, legal evidence is not needed to effectuate impeachment proceedings against the president. However, because it is not a well-encoded legal process, the White House feels more at liberty to invoke executive privilege and not cooperate. The final battle ends up taking place in the court of public opinion, rather than a legal court, because politicians will vote based on their constituents' preferences.
Eurasia Center Vice President Earl Rasmussen told Sputnik that the procedures Pelosi and Schiff had unveiled departed significantly from precedent. Moreover, he added, the vote is belated considering the Democrats launched the probe in September.
University of Illinois Professor of Law Francis Boyle pointed out that Democrats and the US mass media ahead of the vote are already exploiting the development in a bid to win the publicity war.
"In the meantime the fellow travelers of the Democratic Party in the news media are trying to gin up public support for Trump's Impeachment," Boyle told Sputnik.
Because there is little precedent for this type of situation in US history and because the partisan atmosphere dividing Trump from the Democrats is so wide, the vote is not likely to alter the dynamics.
"The investigation will continue and will likely still remain draped in secrecy with leaks only to further smear the President. Congress will fail to address real issues needed to resolve concerns of their constituents. The President will continue to have his agenda and objectives blocked," Rasmussen said.
Analysts broadly agreed, however, on the likely outcome of the impeachment processes in first the House and then the Senate.
"I think we know the outcome already. The House will vote on articles of Impeachment. The Senate will most likely not convict leaving the President in place. I do not see President Trump resigning as the charges are very questionable," Rasmussen said.
Boyle agreed but still believes the most important people that need to be convinced are potential voters.
"I think it is clear that the Democratic-controlled House is going to impeach Trump for something... But right now the Democrats are having a hard time selling this to the American People - the ultimate jury," he said.
However, Boyle also warned that great uncertainty still surrounded the entire process.
"The political situation is extremely volatile. Anything can happen as this process moves forward," he said.
Political commentator and retired neurosurgeon Professor John Walsh warned that intense pressure would be brought on moderate Democrats on Congress and skeptics about the impeachment process to vote for it anyway.
"Such is the impeachment hysteria among the Democrats that it is very difficult for a Democrat to vote no and even harder for a Presidential Candidate to do so. One New Jersey representative has already declared that he is against it," Walsh told Sputnik.
Walsh suggested that at least one outspoken Democratic presidential candidate could break ranks and defy the party machine to oppose the impeachment process.
"Tulsi Gabbard is the vote to watch," he said.
Walsh also predicted that the entire process could backfire disastrously on the Democrats.
"Swing voters are tired of it in my opinion... The vinyl record will keep in its track until it is worn out or someone turns off the machine that spins the disc. Pelosi is not capable of that," he advised.
Rasmussen agreed that impeachment fatigue was likely to set in and also suggested the Democrats could use the situation to potentially fast-track impeachment to undermine a Justice Department probe into the origins of the Mueller investigation that Attorney General William Barr recently launched.
"I see this dragging out through the campaign season. However, there is a possibility that they may try to rush the process in order to potentially thwart ongoing Justice Department investigations involving the origins of Russiagate and Russia collusion allegations," he said.
The Democratic Party appeared to be going all in in a very high stakes and risky strategy to impeach the President or at a minimum prevent him from re-election, Rasmussen concluded.
