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Rudy Guiliani seems to admit – “of course I did” – that he urged Ukrainian officials to investigate the son of President Trump’s political opponent, Joe Biden, and that he later told the President about his efforts. cnn.com/2019/09/19/pol… 1/8
Rudy also says there is nothing wrong with what he did, and further claims that the President could even have explicitly conditioned US foreign aid on Ukraine’s willingness to investigate – “he had every right to do it” – as a kind of quid pro quo. 2/8
We don’t know if the President in fact attempted a quid pro quo of foreign aid for dirt on Biden. Perhaps the IC whistleblower complaint, which raises other troubling issues I discuss with @michaeljmorell, will shed some light, but we don’t yet know. 3/8
As for Rudy’s claim, a more sober view would recognize the big difference between using aid to urge a focus on corruption in general, and using it to urge investigation of a political opponent. The former is routine, the latter is corruption & abuse of the most profound sort. 4/8
There is a professor’s delight of questions about which criminal laws would be violated by such conduct. For example, 18 USC 201 applies to bribes of US officials, the FCPA applies to bribes of foreign officials but for commercial gain, and campaign finance law is complex. 5/8
But it seems much easier to conclude that the conduct would qualify as “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” within the meaning of the Constitution’s Impeachment Clause. See, e.g., Philip Bobbitt citing Charles Black: justsecurity.org/41124/impeachm… 6/8
Today, many thoughtful Republicans respond to Trump’s various outrages by defending the presidency rather than the president, decrying new laws that would limit Article II power. For example, my friend Jack Goldsmith: 7/8
I think the logic of that position, however, demands the most energetic support for impeachment, as it is the most clearly constitutional way to address extreme misconduct by the President, and so also the clearest way to preserve the authority & integrity of the presidency. 8/8
