(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The White House found itself inadvertently reinforcing assertions that the impeachments spearheaded by Nancy Pelosi against former President Donald Trump skipped legal processes, as revealed in a recent exchange over the current impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
White House special counsel Dick Sauber raised eyebrows when issuing a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. In the letter, Sauber accused the past impeachment proceedings of being illegal due to the absence of a House vote.
“In fact, both of you previously supported the position that moving forward with an impeachment inquiry without a vote of the House ‘represents an abuse of power and brings discredit to the House of Representatives,’” Sauber’s letter stated, according to a media report.
Sauber further referenced a 2019 resolution condemning Pelosi’s initiation of an impeachment inquiry against Trump over a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, indicating a lack of House authorization for the process.
The recent clash arises as Biden faces an impeachment inquiry, alleged to involve bribery, political corruption and influence peddling. The Biden legal team’s arguments inadvertently echo the objections raised by Republicans during the Pelosi-led impeachments against Trump.
During the 2019 impeachment proceedings, then-White House lawyer Pat Cipollone contested the legitimacy of the inquiry.
“In the history of our Nation, the House of Representatives has never attempted to launch an impeachment inquiry against the President without a majority of the House taking political accountability for that decision by voting to authorize such a dramatic constitutional step,” Cipollone said on Oct. 9.
House Republicans have consistently pointed to the precedent set by Pelosi’s unilateral decision to begin the Trump impeachments as enough justification for their ongoing impeachment against scandal-ridden Biden.
“Nancy Pelosi changed the precedent of this House on September 24th. … Why would it have to be different today?” former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in September, when the Biden impeachment was just launched.
Pelosi had defended her unilateral decision to initiate Trump’s impeachment by asserting the convening of six investigative committees to find evidence. Nevertheless, Pelosi never held a vote to initiate the impeachment against Trump. Instead, the vote was held after the probe was launched.
