House will vote on impeachment procedures Thursday to ‘ensure transparency’

House Democrats said Monday that the House will vote Thursday to formalize procedures for the next phase of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

The text of the resolution was not immediately available, but House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said it would “ensure transparency and provide a clear path forward” as the investigation continues. “This is the right thing to do for the institution and the American people,” he said.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), meanwhile, said that a former deputy national security adviser had “no basis in law” to skip a deposition Monday and that his failure to appear was further evidence of Trump’s efforts to obstruct Congress.

Charles Kupperman, who served as a deputy to former national security adviser John Bolton, filed a lawsuit Friday seeking guidance from a federal judge about whether he should listen to the executive branch, which has told him not to attend, or to Congress. Since there has not yet been a ruling, he declined to appear.

Kupperman listened in to the July 25 call in which Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. That call is at the center of the impeachment inquiry, which Trump and his Republican allies continued to attack Monday as unfair.