The House Rules Committee opened on Wednesday a debate on legislation laying out procedures for the next steps in the impeachment inquiry of US President Donald Trump.
Republicans, who have accused Democrats of trampling on Trump’s rights and keeping the process too secret, sought to win greater powers to subpoena witnesses and documents and to further open up proceedings of the Intelligence Committee, which plays a key role in the probe.
“The committees have operated in the dark without formal authorization on what amounts to nothing more than an expanded fishing expedition,” Tom Cole, the ranking Republican member of the committee said.
Democrats in Congress, answering Republican complaints that their impeachment investigation of Trump is being conducted in secret, plan a vote on Thursday on how to make their inquiry public, a significant new stage in the probe.
“If it’s a fishing expedition, there are a lot of fish and there might even be some whales out in the water there,” Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, said.
The impeachment inquiry focuses on a July 25 telephone call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden, a former US vice president, and his son Hunter, who had served as a director for Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
Trump made his request to Zelenskiy for an investigation into the Bidens after withholding $391 million in security aid approved by Congress to help Ukraine fight Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Zelenskiy agreed to Trump’s requests. The aid was later provided.
The call is at the heart of the congressional inquiry into whether Trump misused the power of his office for personal political gain and, if so, whether that rises to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors” that merit impeachment and removal from office under the Constitution.
Trump has denied wrongdoing.
If the Democratic-led House approves formal charges against Trump, the Republican-controlled Senate would then hold a trial on whether to remove him from office.
Trump has urged Republicans to fight the impeachment effort.
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