The impeachment of the 45th US President Donald Trump went into the final stage - a lawsuit began in the Senate on the basis of the charges brought against the head of state by the House of Representatives.
In the evening of January 16, the head of the US Supreme Court, John Edwards, took the oath of senators, who are to act as jurors. The day before, 228 members of the House of Representatives supported the transfer of impeachment articles to the Senate, 193 congressmen opposed. All voting participants were actually divided by party affiliation, not counting one democrat who did not support impeachment.
Prosecutors for the trial will be Democrats Adam Schiff, head of the House Intelligence Committee, and Jerrold Nadler, head of the Law Committee.
Recall that the Democratic Party accuses Donald Trump of "abuse of his official powers to obtain personal and political benefits to the detriment of national security." The reason for the claims was a telephone conversation with President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky.
According to the allegations, the US president allegedly suspended $ 391 million in military assistance to Kiev, forcing Zelensky to launch an investigation into the activities of former US Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine. At the same time, Biden Sr. is Trump's most likely opponent in the 2020 presidential election.
Conclusion of the Accounts Chamber
Before the US senators took their oaths to be admitted to the trial as a jury, the US Audit Office issued a statement that strengthened the position of the Democrats.
Thus, the statement of the department says that the Trump administration violated the law by freezing military aid intended for Ukraine. The Accounts Chamber explained that $ 214 million of these funds were transferred to the Pentagon for military assistance programs, which means that the White House did not have the right to delay their transfer for political reasons.
“With its precise implementation, the legislation does not allow the president to replace the provisions adopted by the US Congress with his own political priorities. The fiscal administration withheld funds for political reasons ... and not because of a planned delay. From which we conclude that the administration violated the law “On control over the expenditure of budgetary funds,” the report of the Accounts Chamber says.
In response, the White House Administration and Budget Office stated that it did not agree with such a conclusion.
“We do not agree with the opinion of the US Accounting Chamber. The department uses its authority to allocate funds to ensure that taxpayers spend their dollars appropriately in accordance with the law and the president’s priorities, ”says Fox News, a spokesman for the department, Rachel Semmel.
Moreover, a senior official from the presidential administration told Fox News that, according to Trump's circle, the Accounts Chamber is trying to break into the impeachment process at a time when the media is paying close attention to this topic.
“The Accounts Chamber report is an extremely obvious abuse of authority, they are trying to take advantage of another media hype,” Fox News said.
New evidence
Democrats also said earlier that they had new evidence of Donald Trump’s guilt, namely the correspondence of President Rudolph Giuliani’s associate and lawyer, in which he insists on representatives of the Ukrainian government to start an anti-corruption investigation against the Biden family.
- Activists in Congress building demand Trump's removal from power
- Reuters
- © Michael A. McCoy
These data were provided by the Ukrainian-American businessman Lev Parnassus, who is currently under investigation in the United States on charges of organizing illegal financing of a number of American politicians.
New evidence gave the leadership of the Democratic Party in Congress a reason to declare that the removal of Trump from power is supposedly a settled matter.
“If one of my colleagues had doubts about the materials to be considered at the Senate hearing, the incredible discoveries made this week should dispel them,” said New York Senator Chuck Schumer, the leader of the U.S. Parliament’s minority. .
At the same time, the head of the Republicans in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, noted that the task of the upper house is not to strengthen the case, drawn up on the basis of a "hackish investigation" conducted by the Democrats. The Senate will not “redo their homework and re-conduct the investigation,” taking into account new materials that the Democrats want to supplement the case, the politician emphasized.
Party lines
Despite the new materials that the Democratic Party plans to attach to the case, the removal of Donald Trump from power as a result of this lawsuit is unlikely, experts say. To convict, two-thirds of the senators ’votes are needed - at least 67 out of 100. After the midterm congressional elections, the Republican Party has an advantage in the Senate, occupying 53 seats.
- Democratic Senators Comment on Impeachment Transfer to U.S. Upper House
- © Joshua Roberts / Reuters
This means that at least 20 Republican senators will have to support the prosecution - the Democrats. According to political scientists, taking into account the upcoming elections, such a decision for any Republican will be tantamount to political suicide.
“I think that on Trump this whole situation will not be reflected in any way, but on the Democrats it will leave a mark. Republicans will now try not only to justify Trump, but also to strike at Biden in order to strengthen their positions, ”said Konstantin Blokhin, an expert at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in an interview with RT.
A similar point of view in an interview with RT was expressed by the director of the U.S. Franklin Roosevelt Foundation for the Study of the United States at Moscow State University, Yuri Rogulev.
“Based on the fact that the vote in the House of Representatives was exclusively in the party section and the discipline was high, there is reason to believe that the vote will be held in the Senate in the same way, where discipline will be even easier to observe, because there are fewer politicians, respectively, more opportunities to influence individual legislators, ”said the analyst.
In his opinion, the leadership of the Republican Party in the Senate expects to expedite the procedure and thus quickly justify Trump, but this process is likely to still negatively affect the 45th US President.
“Impeachment creates an unfavorable atmosphere in the country for the head of the White House. This procedure in itself is meaningless, because the primaries will soon begin, but it is needed in order to spoil Trump’s election campaign, ”Rogulev believes.
Konstantin Blokhin emphasizes that the main goal of the entire process of impeachment is not to remove the president from power, but to create a negative information background around him to influence his chances of being reelected.
“If Trump is ultimately acquitted, then he will surely write it to himself as an internal political victory, since he likes to add everything to his list, even that which he didn’t do, for example, the destruction of the IG *. Undoubtedly, after this he will also declare that he will begin retaliatory actions against the politicians who initiated this process, including Nancy Pelosi, ”summed Blokhin.
* “Islamic State” (ISIS, ISIS) - the organization was recognized as terrorist by decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2014.