Impeachment process against Garrett Walker

The **impeachment process against Garrett Walker** began in the United States House of Representatives on October 20, 2014, when the House Judiciary Committee announced that it would consider articles of impeachment proposed against Garrett Walker, the 45th president of the United States.

Public calls for Walker's impeachment began after the publication of the *PAC Money Raises Questions* article by the *Wall Street Telegraph* on October 1, which detailed the administration's potential involvement in a foreign money laundering scheme that involved Chinese influence in American elections. U.S. Attorney General Christopher Collins appointed Heather Dunbar to conduct a special counsel investigation into the allegations on October 6. Dunbar's investigation proved the legitimacy of the allegations made in the article; Raymond Tusk, a longtime friend of Walker, and his business partner Xander Feng made 38 trips to Democratic donor Daniel Lanagin's Adohi Casino since 2005, with Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings showing that political contributions to the Democratic Party spiked after each visit. Feng admitted on a call with Dunbar that he and Tusk masked their Chinese business profits in Lanagin's casino to influence American elections. In June 2014, Lanagin halted the contributions to the Democrats at Tusk's request over his worsening relationship with Walker, and instead donated to ten conservative political action committees (PACs) that funded the Republican Party. Contributions to the Republicans halted on August 7, one day before Walker announced a deal for a Chinese company owned by Feng to construct the Port Jefferson bridge in Long Island. FEC filings showed that Lanagin's contributions shifted from the Republicans back to the Democrats immediately after U.S. Vice President Frank Underwood successfully negotiated for the revival of the bridge project, tying the Walker administration directly to the money laundering.

Further investigation by Dunbar revealed that Walker had been undergoing months-long counseling with his wife, First Lady Patricia Walker. Dunbar summoned Dr. Thomas Larkin, Walker's spiritual counselor, to appear before the special counsel in deposition, but he initially refused to comment on the details of his meetings with Walker over a spiritual code that sealed their conversations. Prior to Larkin's testimony, Walker met with White House Counsel Bill Galich and instructed him to coach Larkin into denying that the two had conversations over the money laundering scandal and to avoid specifics of their private matters. When Larkin's responses to questions posed in the deposition were skeptical, Dunbar pressured him on whether or not an administration official tampered with his testimony. Her revelation to him that Walker waived spiritual privilege led Larkin to admit that Galich coached his responses, and a federal grand jury indicted Galich on witness tampering charges at Dunbar's request on October 20. Larkin also admitted that he prescribed Walker with medication that could have potentially impaired his judgement. Galich testified before federal prosecutors that Walker instructed him to coach Larkin, resulting in House Republicans introducing a series of impeachment articles against him for his involvement in the money laundering scheme and his efforts at witness tampering. Under mounting public pressure, the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee organized an impeachment inquiry staff that day, and House Speaker Bob Birch granted the committee with the authority to begin investigating whether sufficient grounds existed to impeach Walker.

U.S. Vice President Frank Underwood had a meeting with Raymond Tusk on October 28, during which he promised a pardon in exchange for Tusk testifying that Walker was aware of the money laundering scheme. After originally pleading the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Tusk delivered his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on October 29 and claimed responsibility for the scheme, and alleged that Walker was aware of it. Following Tusk's testimony, party leadership informed Walker that there was enough Democratic support to impeach him in the House of Representatives. Democratic senator Michael Kern subsequently announced that he and enough Democrats had formed a coalition with all Republicans in the Senate to achieve a two-thirds majority in voting for conviction on all articles, making Walker's eventual removal from office inevitable. The House Judiciary Committee approved all four articles of impeachment and sent them to the House of Representatives for debate and final passage on October 30; Walker subsequently announced his resignation.