By: Elijah Carson
OwlFeed News Section Editor

Impeachment: a discussion that’s been both on every news station across America, as well as everyone’s minds. A topic that seems to reach an upcoming answer as the impeachment inquiry begins. Although, many people wonder if this will affect anything or if President Trump will remain in office.

This all began when a whistleblower reported that in July President Trump had connected with the current President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenski, and asked him to investigate both former Vice President, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter in exchange for a White House meeting and money for military aid.

The action was called unconstitutional and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi agreed to open up an impeachment inquiry, where multiple witnesses were called to the stand. The House Judiciary Committee drafted Articles of Impeachment on Dec. 10, charging President Trump with

abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The House will likely vote formally to impeach Trump in mid-December.

If that happens, the impeachment process with move to the Senate, where our senators will decide whether Trump will be convicted and removed from office.

On September 21st, the first hearing began where Democratic officials brought professors Noah Feldman, Michael J. Gerhardt, & Pamela S. Karlan, where they argued that President Trump has committed several impeachable offenses including using “leverage for political favors constitute impeachable conduct, as was the act of soliciting foreign assistance and abusing the office of the presidency in order to gain personal advantage, including in the 2020 presidential election,” Feldman stated during the hearing.

However, law professor Johnathan Turley, brought in by Republican officials, had claimed that the argument for President Trump was “slipshod and premature” where in his 53-page written statement, he read that, “If the House proceeds solely on the Ukrainian allegations, this impeachment would stand out among modern impeachments as the shortest proceeding, with the thinnest evidentiary record, and the narrowest grounds ever used to impeach a president.” Additionally, other Republicans accused the Democrats of having personal anti-Trump bias.

Now weeks later, officials directly involved in Ukraine diplomacy have testified, including Bill Taylor, a top U.S diplomat from Ukraine, Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, David Holmes, a counselor for political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine and Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine.

They had all admitted that they had overseen or heard President Trump and President Zelenski talk about an investigation, with Sondland even stating, “We were just following the President’s orders.”

However, Republicans have arguments on their side including how practical are these witnesses, as showing evidence to other cases such as how Ukrainians had tampered with the 2016 elections, although many people dispute this. Many people claimed to have seen the event, moreover, the main person that Republicans and even President Trump himself wants to know is the identity of the whistleblower who made the claim themselves.

The next thing for the government themselves is the House vote, where the House of Representatives has the chance to vote to have the impeachment trial, which the Senate will conduct. Reports say that the House will most likely vote yes to the trial as a majority of the House consists of Democrats, although many believe that Trump being removed by the Senate is far from likely.

When discussing the Senate, they will hold a trial discussing the possibility of whether President Trump should be removed and possibly prosecuted for any crimes he did, assuming the House votes yes. In order to remove the President, they need a vote of ⅔, which is at least 67 votes.

Nonetheless, we will see the outcome in 2020, in the next decade, where OwlFeed will cover the events.