WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- House Democrats on Tuesday released the text of a resolution aimed at formalizing procedures of an impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump, paving the way for opening hearings and fresh clashes with the White House.
The resolution, unveiled by House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, lays out procedures for the lower chamber's intelligence panel to conduct public hearings and release witness testimony.
For the public hearings, the resolution allows the chairman and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee to question witnesses for up to 90 minutes and it allows them to give that time to committee aides to conduct questioning.
The document also allows Republicans to request witness testimony and issue subpoenas but those subpoenas would have to be signed off by Democrats.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted the House will vote on the resolution on Thursday.
"Americans will get to hear about the President's abuse of power firsthand. I gather Republican Leaders do not actually want that after all," the California Democrat tweeted.
The resolution directs five House committees -- intelligence, foreign affairs, oversight, financial services and way and means -- to continue the ongoing investigations.
Four of the committee chairs issued a joint statement Tuesday afternoon, saying that "the next phase" of the impeachment inquiry "will move from closed depositions to open hearings."
"Soon the American people will hear from witnesses in an open setting," the statement added.
In response, the White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham slapped the impeachment inquiry as "an illegitimate sham from the start as it lacked any proper authorization by a House vote."
"This resolution does nothing to change the fundamental fact that House Democrats refuse to provide basic due process rights to the Administration," she said in a statement.
The impeachment inquiry into Trump was initiated last month by Pelosi after an anonymous whistleblower had raised concerns about the president's interactions with Ukraine, including a July 25 phone call between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump was alleged to have abused power by using a military aid that Congress approved to pressure Zelensky into investigating former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, so as to help his re-election campaign. Besides, the White House allegedly tried to cover it up.
The White House has dismissed the allegations and made clear that it will not provide documents or witnesses to House investigators because it considered the impeachment inquiry unfair and illegitimate.
The Democrats, who have a majority in the House, have argued that there is no need to hold a full House vote to authorize the inquiry, citing the nation's Constitution stating that the lower chamber "shall have the sole Power of Impeachment."
Trump has denied any wrongdoing as Republicans are responding more aggressively to defend the president and challenge the impeachment inquiry.
On Twitter, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy accused Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of turning the panel into "the Impeachment Committee."
"It appears they are more concerned with removing President Trump from the White House than they are with removing terrorists from the battlefield," the California Republican said.
Trump didn't directly weigh in on the resolution on Tuesday but lashed out at Pelosi and Schiff.
"Nervous Nancy Pelosi is doing everything possible to destroy the Republican Party. Our Polls show that it is going to be just the opposite. The Do Nothing Dems will lose many seats in 2020. They have a Death Wish, led by a corrupt politician, Adam Schiff!" Trump tweeted.
The resolution came the same day as Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert of the National Security Council (NSC), testified behind closed doors before House impeachment investigators.
Vindman, the first person to have testified on the controversial Trump-Zelensky phone call, said he was so concerned about their conversation that he reported his concerns to NSC's lead counsel, according to a copy of his testimony.
Speaking to reporters about Vindman's deposition, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat on the House Oversight committee, accused Republicans of trying to find out the whistleblower.
"What the Republicans are trying to do in there, very clearly in their questioning, is try to front-door or backdoor Lt. Col. Vindman into revealing who the whistleblower is, even though in his testimony, he said he didn't know," she said.
Two State Department experts on Ukraine are slated to testify in separate closed-door hearings before the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees Thursday.
Timothy Morrison, NSC's top Russia and Europe adviser, and Robert Blair, senior adviser to acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, are scheduled to testify later this week.
