David Dennison's Dilemma: House to vote on public session procedures to come

White House stonewalling and foot-dragging will be addressed by this resolution responding to the GOP stunts and whining about process. Procedures for assembling the articles for impeachment will be derived as well as the evidence that will correspond to the now 55% that favors impeachment and removal. A Thursday vote will also address what appears to be another attempt to thwart witness testimony signaled by the Charles Kupperman suit that delayed his appearance today.

Dear Democratic Colleague,

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.”  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 Constitution provides that the House of Representatives “shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”  Multiple past impeachments have gone forward without any authorizing resolutions.  Just last week, a federal court confirmed that the House is not required to hold a vote and that imposing such a requirement would be “an impermissible intrusion on the House’s constitutional authority.”  More than 300 legal scholars have also refuted this argument, concluding that “the Constitution does not mandate the process for impeachment and there is no constitutional requirement that the House of Representatives authorize an impeachment inquiry before one begins.”

The Trump Administration has made up this argument – apparently out of whole cloth – in order to justify its unprecedented cover-up, withhold key documents from multiple federal agencies, prevent critical witnesses from cooperating, and defy duly authorized subpoenas.