(6) Impeachment

Episode 6: Impeachment – The Ukraine Call and the First House Vote

By the fall of 2019, President Trump had survived the Mueller investigation, but a new and even more direct threat was emerging from Capitol Hill. What began as a phone call with the president of Ukraine would quickly spiral into the first impeachment of Donald Trump's presidency.

This is the story of a whistleblower, a quid pro quo accusation, and a deeply partisan battle that further divided an already fractured nation.

The trouble started with a single phone call on July 25, 2019.

President Trump spoke with newly elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. During the conversation, Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who had served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. Trump also pressed Ukraine to look into claims about interference in the 2016 election. At the time, Joe Biden was the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

A few weeks later, a whistleblower — a CIA officer detailed to the White House — filed a formal complaint. The complaint alleged that Trump had used the power of his office to pressure a foreign government into investigating a political rival. It suggested there had been a quid pro quo: military aid and a White House meeting were being withheld until Ukraine announced the investigations Trump wanted.

The complaint was explosive. Democrats in the House moved quickly. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had long resisted impeachment efforts, announced a formal impeachment inquiry on September 24, 2019. House committees began issuing subpoenas and holding closed-door depositions.

Trump and his allies pushed back hard. They called the entire process a "witch hunt" and a "hoax." Trump released a rough transcript of the call, insisting there was "no quid pro quo" and that he had done nothing wrong. He argued that he was fighting corruption and seeking help investigating possible interference in American elections.

The public hearings in November were intense and highly televised. Witnesses, including former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, national security official Fiona Hill, and others, testified about pressure on Ukraine. The defense argued that Trump was conducting legitimate foreign policy and that Democrats were trying to undo the 2016 election through impeachment.

On December 18, 2019, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump on two articles: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The vote fell largely along party lines. Trump became only the third president in U.S. history to be impeached by the House.

The case then moved to the Senate for a trial. Republicans controlled the Senate, and the outcome was never really in doubt.

In February 2020, the Senate voted to acquit Trump on both articles. Only one Republican senator, Mitt Romney, voted to convict on the abuse-of-power charge. Trump was acquitted. For Trump and his supporters, the entire process was a partisan sham designed to weaken him ahead of the 2020 election. They argued the phone call was perfectly normal diplomacy and that Democrats had abused the impeachment power for political gain.

The political nightmare was about to enter its most intense and consequential chapter yet.

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