Politics

Donald Trump is the first U.S. president to be impeached twice. In 2021, he was impeached for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. In 2020, he was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress related to a phone call made to the president of Ukraine.

Trump Impeachment Inquiry: A Guide To Key People, Facts And Documents

WFAE | By Dana Farrinton

Published November 19, 2019 at 9:43 AM EST

The Democratic-led House of Representatives is pursuing an impeachment inquiry into President Trump. Here is the key information you need in order to understand an increasingly complicated affair.

First, some background: While momentum toward impeachment had been building among Democrats for months, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced an inquiry in September — after a whistleblower complaint about a White House phone call with Ukraine. The House formalized the inquiry and outlined their path forward with a vote on Oct. 28. The first open hearing in the inquiry is scheduled for Nov. 13.

In a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Trump asked for an investigation into a debunked conspiracy theory about the 2016 election and into potential 2020 rival and former Vice President Joe Biden. The White House is also accused of withholding military aid to Ukraine for Trump's personal political gain. Trump maintains that he has done nothing wrong.

Timeline: The Ukraine Affair

Here's how we got to the impeachment inquiry, from Trump's early focus on Ukraine in 2017, to the release of the whistleblower complaint on Sept. 26. Read the timeline.

Who And What: Key People And Concepts

Since the original whistleblower complaint was released, the list of names of those connected to Trump's call with Zelenskiy or to broader Ukraine policy has grown substantially.

From the president to career diplomats to private lawyers, here is a quick guide to people connected to the events being investigated.

In-depth profiles and features:

John Bolton: Democrats now have an unlikely ally
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman: A complicated web connects two Soviet-born businessmen with the inquiry
Rick Perry: How the energy secretary became a key figure
Adam Schiff: The surprising face of the impeachment inquiry
Gordon Sondland: The ambassador whose texts put him at the center of the Ukraine scandal
Kurt Volker: Ex-U.S. special envoy to Ukraine caught in whirlwind of impeachment inquiry
Marie Yovanovitch: How the former ambassador became a target in Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelenskiy: How Ukraine's president wound up in the middle
Quid pro quo: From simple exchange to shakedown, here's how the phrase evolved
Trump and the CIA: How the relationship between Trump and his spy chiefs soured

Documents: Primary Sources

Written words are central to the Ukraine affair. The significance of the whistleblower's original complaint and the White House's record of its call with Ukraine are debated, but the text is public. Here are the documents to refer to as the inquiry proceeds:

Texts and memos

Call: The White House memo of Trump's July call with Zelenskiy (Sept. 25)
Aid: The Pentagon letter on military aid to Ukraine (Sept. 25)
Complaint: The whistleblower complaint (Sept. 26)
Texts: Batch of texts between diplomats released by House Democrats (Oct. 4)
Letter: A fact check of the White House legal argument (Oct. 9)
The Other Call: The log of Trump's April call with Zelenskiy (Nov. 15)

Corroborating The Whistleblower Complaint

The whistleblower's complaint has largely been corroborated by witness testimony, public statements and media reports. Read an annotation of the document.

Transcripts of closed-door depositions