The Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, said in a letter to her fellow Democrats on the Hill that the House will vote on Thursday to formalize procedures for the next phase of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
According to the letter Pelosi sent her fellow Democrats, the move would "ensure transparency and provide a clear path forward" for the inquiry as it continues to investigate Trump and his
"For weeks, the President, his Counsel in the White House, and his allies in Congress have made the baseless claim that the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry “lacks the necessary authorization for a valid impeachment proceeding”" Pelosi wrote in her letter. "They argue that, because the House has not taken a vote, they may simply pretend the impeachment inquiry does not exist.
"Of course, this argument has no merit."
The letter goes on to point out that the Constitution gives the House of Representatives the "sole Power of Impeachment" and that past impeachment inquiries have proceeded without any kind of authorizing resolutions. Last week, a federal court confirmed that the House was not required to hold a vote and that imposing such a requirement would be an "impermissible intrusion on the House's constitutional authority."
The letter goes to to state that Democrats would bring forward a resolution to the Floor that would affirm the impeachment inquiry currently being conducted by several committees, as well as establish guidelines to transfer evidence to the Judiciary Committee while it considers any potential articles of impeachment.
The vote comes as Republicans have done what they can to stymie the impeachment inquiry, with dozens of Republican lawmakers entering a closed door hearing in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility last week at the Capitol in an attempt to interrupt scheduled testimony from Laura Cooper, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia.
"Behind those doors, they intend to overturn the results of an American presidential election," Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz said. "We're going to try to go in there ... on behalf of the millions of Americans that we represent that want to see this Congress working for them, and not obsessed with attacking a president who we believe has not done anything to deserve impeachment."
Democrats in the House announced an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump in September after a whistleblower raised concerns over a phone call between the president and the newly-elected president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump is the fourth president in the nation's history to face articles of impeachment. President Andrew Jackson and President Bill Clinton are the only two presidents who have been impeached. President Richard Nixon resigned from his position before he was impeached by the House in 1974.
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