House Opening a Formal Impeachment Inquiry into President Trump, Hawai‘i Senators Comment

Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaiʻi) issued a statement after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced the House of Representatives is opening a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

“I commend Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats for opening a formal impeachment inquiry that will lay out for the American people whether Donald Trump committed high crimes and misdemeanors.

“Here’s what we know:

• He obstructed justice as detailed in the Mueller Report.
• He has been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a campaign finance crime.
• He has been receiving money in violation of the Constitution from foreign governments.
• He pressured a foreign government to investigate his political rival — and he may even have threatened to withhold Congressionally-allocated aid money destined for that country to fight Russian aggression.
• He has stonewalled every effort by Congress to do its job of oversight and investigation, by directing witnesses not to testify in front of Congress, refusing to turn over documents, and asserting privileges that don’t exist.

“From Day 1 of his presidency, Donald Trump has been motivated by two things: protecting himself and making money. Speaker Pelosi is right to hold this dangerous chief executive accountable.”

Senator Hirono first called for the opening of an impeachment inquiry on May 29, 2019, following Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s press conference at the US Department of Justice outlining the conclusions of his two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign coordinated with those efforts.

On Monday, US Sen. Brian Schatz urged the initiation of impeachment proceedings saying:

“The president is breaking statutory and constitutional law every day, and he is abusing his inherent power as president with regularity, enthusiasm, and most troublingly, impunity. He and his legal team argue that a sitting president’s authorities are so vast that they literally transcend the law. They argue that the Congress has a remedy for this criminality and defiance – the impeachment process. If that is their view, so be it. On behalf of the people who elected us, we must formalize and accelerate the impeachment process so that Congress, by exercising its responsibility under Article 1 of the Constitution, can provide some measure of accountability.

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“This isn’t just essential for now, but so that no future president of either party believes that it is possible, practicable, or wise to defy the law, Congress’ constitutional role, and the American people.”