Political news is dominated by the recent decision from the U.S. Congress to conduct an official impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump for his contact with the president of Ukraine. Correctly, Trump is reported to have asked President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, in a phone call this summer. Former Vice President Biden is running for president of the United States in the upcoming 2020 election. 

Campaign finance law states:  “It shall be unlawful for a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make a contribution or donation of money or other things of value, or to make any express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a federal, state or local election.”

This all began on August 12th, when an anonymous “whistleblower” filed a complaint with the chairman of the House intelligence committee. However, the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, decided it could not be forwarded to Congress or the general public.  

In early September, the media attained some of the details involved in this whistleblower complaint. The demand for the release of the claim was beginning to grow. In response, Trump admitted he talked to Zelensky about various topics, including the Bidens. 

Then, on September 24th, House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi requested an impeachment inquiry and a release of the complaint which the US Senate agreed to. 

The following day, on Wednesday, September 25th, the White House released the transcript of the call Trump made on July 25th. He congratulated Zelensky on his party’s victory in the parliamentary election. They also discussed other European countries; eventually, the conversation came to America and the upcoming election.

 “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great. Biden went around bragging that we stopped the prosecution, so if you can look into that… it sounds horrible to me,” Trump said.

It was also revealed that Trump froze $400 million in funds before calling the Ukraine president. This led to speculation that he did so to put pressure on the Ukrainian President to investigate the Bidens. Trump admits that he froze the funds but denies doing so for leverage. 

In response to accusations, Zelensky stated, “I don’t want to be involved in democratic, open elections of US state. We had I think a good phone call, it was normal, we spoke about many things… I think, and you read it, that nobody pushed me.”

Although Trump had initially said this inquiry would be positive for him after a formal announcement was made about his impeachment inquiry, he took to his twitter account to write, “The Democrats are frozen with hatred and fear. They get nothing done. This should never be allowed to happen to another president. Witchhunt!”

The same day, the official whistleblower complaint was released to Congress. US House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told reporters, “I found the allegations deeply disturbing. I also found them very credible. I want to thank the whistleblower for coming forward. I think what this courageous individual has done is expose serious wrongdoing.”

On September 26th, the official complaint from the whistleblower was released to the public; It detailed the content and context of the call.  

Mike Turner, a Republican member of the House intelligence committee, said, “I want to say to the president, this is not OK. That conversation is not OK. I think it will be disappointing to the American public when they read this transcript.”

Trump had a response to the complaint, “I want to know who the person is who gave the whistleblower the information because that’s close to a spy,” he told the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. 

On October 4th, ten days after the Impeachment Inquiry began, Trump released a statement arguing that China and Ukraine should investigate Joe Biden. Beijing spokesman Geng Shuang responded, saying, “Beijing had no intention of intervening in the domestic affairs of the United States… China has long pursued the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries,” he said, according to the South China Morning Post.

Gordon Sondland is the ambassador to the European Union and is being summoned to court on October 16th to answer questions regarding Trump and Ukraine’s involvement.

Most recently, the attorney who represents the whistleblower has brought to light another whistleblower. 

The White House has also said they will not be cooperating with the inquiry. “The White House should be warned that continued efforts to hide the truth of the President’s abuse of power from the American people will be regarded as further evidence of obstruction,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. “Mr. President, you are not above the law. You will be held accountable.”

According to the Washington Post, a poll states that a growing majority of Americans now agree with and support the House of Representatives’ choice to move forward with the impeachment inquiry.