September 24, 2019

Trump’s Ukraine Scandal May Have Finally Forced Pelosi’s Hand on Impeachment

“We will have no choice.”

Caroline Brehman/ZUMA

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She may not be completely sold yet, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to finally be reassessing her longheld resistance to opening an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump amid the fast-unfolding Ukraine scandal.

“We will have no choice,” she told CNN late Monday on the inevitability of an impeachment investigation, as contemporaneous reports revealed the top Democrat spent the weekend discussing the issue with caucus leaders, including House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler. 

The shift follows growing calls among Democrats, including moderate and first-term lawmakers once reluctant to throw in their lot with the “impeach this motherfucker” caucus, to begin the process after numerous reports revealed the president’s efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating debunked accusations of corruption into his 2020 rival, Joe Biden. Those efforts are reportedly the basis of a whistleblower’s complaint now at the center of a bitter showdown between Democrats and the Trump administration, as acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire has so far refused to reveal more information into the explosive complaint.

“If these allegations are true, we believe these actions represent an impeachable offense,” seven freshman Democrats wrote in the Washington Post on Monday. “We do not arrive at this conclusion lightly, and we call on our colleagues in Congress to consider the use of all congressional authorities available to us, including the power of “inherent contempt” and impeachment hearings, to address these new allegations, find the truth and protect our national security.”

Trump has openly admitted to a July phone call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, during which the two leaders discussed Biden. After insisting that there was “no quid quo pro” raised in their conversation, Trump on Monday appeared to reverse course, hinting that he indeed may have threatened to withhold military aid to Ukraine over his demands for a Biden probe.  “Why would you give money to a country that you think is corrupt?” he told reporters at the United Nations General Assembly. Hours later, the Washington Post reported that the president directed his staff to withhold $391 million in the lead up to the now-infamous July phone call.

House Democrats are scheduled to meet on Tuesday to discuss impeachment.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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