More incriminating evidence has accumulated in impeachment proceedings against U.S. President Donald Trump during the Christmas-New Year’s holidays.
Trump was impeached by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives on Dec. 18 on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. However, a conviction for Trump in the Republican-controlled Senate appears unlikely. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has delayed sending the articles of the impeachment to the Senate until Democrats receive assurances of a fair trial.
Trump is accused of soliciting foreign interference in the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election and obstructing impeachment proceedings by telling officials to ignore subpoenas. The House of Representatives concluded that Trump had withheld $250 million in military aid and a White House invitation to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to persuade Ukraine to investigate his potential rival in the election, ex-Vice President Joe Biden.
The Just Security news site reported on Jan. 2 that Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget, told Elaine McCusker, the acting Pentagon comptroller, in an Aug. 30 e-mail to continue to hold U.S. military assistance to Ukraine.
In December, a court ordered the government to release about 300 pages of e-mails to the Center for Public Integrity.
Duffey also sent an email to top senior defense officials several hours after Trump concluded his July 25 call with Zelensky and asked the Ukrainian president to investigate Biden. In the letter, Duffey advised the Pentagon to suspend any future military aid for Ukraine.
According to the New York Times, on June 19, Robert Blair, senior adviser to acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, also called Russell Vought, the acting head of Office of Management and Budget, and said, “We need to hold it up” – a reference to the military aid for Ukraine.
More legal trouble emerged for Trump on Jan. 6, when ex-National Security Adviser John R. Bolton said he would testify at Trump’s impeachment trial if subpoenaed.
Bolton is deemed to be a crucial witness with direct knowledge of Trump’s relations with Ukraine and could have a significant impact on the impeachment proceedings.
“I have concluded that, if the Senate issues a subpoena for my testimony, I am prepared to testify,” Bolton said in a statement.
However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has thus far rejected the Democratic Party’s demands that the impeachment trial include the testimony of Bolton and three other witnesses, as well as documents withheld by the White House.
Despite the impeachment trial, the outcome of the Nov. 3 presidential election is far from clear. The impeachment hearings have rallied Trump’s opponents but have also mobilized his supporters.
In what some Trump’s critics saw as a diversionary stunt by the U.S. president to offset the negative impact of the impeachment trial ahead of the election, he authorized a Jan. 3 drone strike in Baghdad that killed Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force.
Soleimani is recognized as a terrorist by the U.S. and the European Union and was in charge of Iran’s foreign clandestine operations, including its support of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and Iran’s support for Hezbollah, a Shia terrorist group.
The Republican Party, meanwhile, has come up with a potential tool to block the impeachment trial. Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri has introduced a resolution to update Senate rules to allow a motion to dismiss articles of impeachment for lack of prosecution due to what he sees as Pelosi’s reluctance to send the article of impeachment to a Republican-dominated Senate.
