National controversy has sparked once more over United States President Donald J. Trump as he has been acquitted of all articles of impeachment. Those articles originate from a phone call between him and Ukranian President Voldoymyr Zelensky, in which he asked the foreign nation to investigate political opponent and former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. What concludes a four-month battle that has gripped the majority of Washington’s attention and has left Democrats feeling more than disgruntled, has been nothing short of a milestone in American history. There were 47 votes of conviction from the Democratic party along with one Republican vote. The Senate was 19 votes shy of gaining a conviction which would have led to the removal of President Trump from office.
Although this was not the case; history was still in fact made that day. Utah Senator Mitt Romney, being the sole Republican vote that wished to convict president Trump of the first article of impeachment; abuse of power, makes Romney the first senator in U.S. history to vote to convict a president of his own party. Romney proclaimed before submitting his vote that, “The president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.” A bold statement from the prominent Republican. For those who haven’t been able to follow this political saga we have made a comprehensive timeline highlighting the major events leading to the historical acquittal.
Early September there was an anonymous whistleblower complaint by a member of the intelligence community stating that President Trump had used “The power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.” The complaint seeded from a July 25th phone call between President Trump and newly elected Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky. The complaint continued to describe how Trump urged the Ukrainian government to investigate political opponent & former Vice President Joe Biden as well as his son Hunter Biden. Biden, at the time, was believed to be the Democratic party’s largest opponent to Trump in the 2020 elections, due to his high name familiarity. Trump and his allies, when questioned, accused Vice President Biden of using his power as Vice President to pressure Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma Holdings; a Ukrainian oil & Gas company in which Biden’s son Hunter was a board member on from 2014-2019. Reports say that just days prior to the July 25th phone call White House officials were ordered to hold $391 million dollars in military aid to Ukraine.
Following the July 25th phone call, White House officials went to great lengths to cover-up any proof of the conversation between the two world leaders, placing the transcript of the phone call on a highly secured server, more commonly used for classified matters regarding U.S. national security.
After the whistleblower complaint reached Congress on September 9th, the U.S. government released the aid to Ukraine a few days later on September 11th. By this time a full blown investigation was underway regarding the July 25th phone call and by December 18th, after multiple White House officials confirmed the whistleblower’s complaint’s legitimacy, The U.S. House of Representatives presented the president with two articles of impeachment; abuse of power regarding his quid pro quo agreement with Ukraine and obstruction of justice from the attempted cover-up of the conversation.
Mid-January, impeachment articles were transmitted to the Senate & impeachment managers were assigned after supreme court justice John Roberts swore in senators, both sides presented their arguments over a three-day period.
As debates proceeded, we saw very persuasive arguments from both sides of the political spectrum. From house prosecutors we heard from Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler; and form the Presidents Defense Team Ken Star, Robert Ray, Alan Dershowitz, Pat Cipollne, and Jay Sekalow. Impeachment hearings ended early Wednesday morning on February 5th, less than 24 hours after President Trump's State of the Union address, with the Senate Judiciary acquitting the president of the two charges.