Democrats set the stage for impeaching Trump with key hearing

Democratic lawmakers in Congress will take a big step this week in what appears to be a now inexorable march toward impeaching U.S. President Donald Trump, with the start of hearings seen as a precursor to formal charges being announced within weeks.

With opinion polls showing Americans bitterly divided over whether to impeach Trump, the Democratic-controlled Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives will hold a hearing on Wednesday to explain to the American public what constitutes an impeachable offence. It will also receive a report from the House Intelligence Committee laying out the evidence Democrats say shows Trump abused his office for personal political gain.

emocrats, who control the House, have been investigating whether the Republican president pressured Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden, a former Democratic vice president who is seeking his party’s nomination to face Trump in the 2020 presidential election, and his son Hunter Biden, who had been a board member of a Ukrainian energy company.

The impeachment inquiry has heard testimony from current and former officials that military aid was withheld from Ukraine and that a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was conditioned on the investigations being carried out.
REUTERS, 02nd 
DECEMBER, 2019