Nancy Pelosi says House of Representatives will not hold a vote authorising Donald Trump's impeachment probe

Washington: US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday said that the House of Representatives does not plan at this time to hold a full vote of the body to authorise an impeachment investigation into US president Donald Trump. “There is no requirement that we have a vote and so at this time we will not be having a vote,” Pelosi said at a press conference. [caption id=“attachment_6731321” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. AP[/caption] This comes after Vice President Mike Pence and the Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said that they will not cooperate with a US House of Representatives impeachment enquiry, prompting Pelosi to say that would strengthen the case against the president. The Pentagon also said it would not comply with lawmakers’ request for documents related to Trump’s effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate a political rival, further illustrating Trump’s determination to stonewall the Democratic-led impeachment effort, which threatens to consume his presidency. The investigation is focused on the July call in which Trump pressed Zelenskiy to have Ukraine officials investigate Biden and his businessman son, Hunter Biden, who had been on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. Hunter Biden, 49, denied doing anything improper here in past work for the company but acknowledged he had benefited professionally from his father’s political career in an interview with ABC News. Joe Biden has denied Trump’s allegations of corruption. Democrats have accused Trump of pressuring a vulnerable US ally to dig up dirt on Biden after withholding $391 million in US security aid intended to help combat Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of Ukraine. Zelenskiy agreed to investigate. Trump eventually allowed aid. Trump has denied wrongdoing and defended his request to Zelenskiy during the phone call, which prompted a formal whistleblower complaint by a person with a US intelligence agency.