Washington(ANN)-Democrats in the US House of Representatives have unveiled a measure that formally lays out the next steps in their impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
The House of Representatives Rules Committee released the text of the resolution Tuesday. The proposal could be voted upon by the full House, which is controlled by Democrats, as soon as this week.
The proposal was previewed on Monday by House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The resolution comes as pressure grows on Democrats to make Trump’s impeachment inquiry more open, including holding public hearings with key witnesses in the Ukraine affair that has overwhelmed the White House.
Under the proposal, the House Intelligence Committee is authorized to have public hearings on its impeachment probe.
The committee and other panels investigating Trump would forward their findings to the House Judiciary Committee, which could also conduct hearings before making decisions about filing any articles of impeachment.
To date, all witness testimony in the month-long inquiry has been taken behind closed doors, leading Republicans to condemn the process as secretive and illegitimate.
If the president “refuses to cooperate” unlawfully with congressional requests, Democrats say that the measure authorizes the House to “impose appropriate remedies, including by denying specific requests by the President or his counsel.”
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement that the resolution proves that the impeachment process has been an “illegitimate sham” in the five weeks since it started.
“This resolution does nothing to change the fundamental fact that House Democrats refuse to provide basic due process rights to the Administration,” she said.
Trump himself said in a tweet that “today’s backtracking is an admission that this process has been botched from the start.”
Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry in September after a whistleblower alleged the Republican president pressured Ukraine to investigate his main Democratic rival, former US vice president Joe Biden.
That request by Trump, and accusations he conditioned nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine on the political favor, form the basis of the impeachment inquiry that now threatens his presidency.