Did Trump Just Impeach Himself?

[swag]

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/25/trump-impeachment-democrats-228269?fbclid=IwAR3ZynNxy4eQNvS-T7CfRA4urTXJ1qOAh1NQU6-8ecUPoWycU0B-hPjK1Uo

The White House memo reconstructing a July phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky landed on the internet on Wednesday like a dress that is either clearly blue and black or clearly white and gold, depending on the viewer.

Here was evidence, clear and unambiguous—and provided by the White House itself—that Trump requested a foreign leader to investigate the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, one of Trump’s potential 2020 opponents. But where some saw an impeachable abuse of power, Trump defenders saw proof that he did nothing wrong, because his request for a “favor” wasn’t explicitly tied to the withholding of U.S. military aid.

Who’s right? We asked a group of legal experts what to make of it all. Do President Trump’s actions, as described in the summary of his phone call, meet the Constitution’s definition of an impeachable offense? If yes, why? If no, what more should be investigated, if anything?

Here are their responses:

***

The phone call ‘clearly establishes high crimes and misdemeanors’
Laurence H. Tribe is a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School.

The White House’s reconstruction of the phone call clearly establishes high crimes and misdemeanors, even if no further evidence were available. It shows a president responding to a desperate request by an ally for military assistance that he is secretly withholding by indicating that he might be able to help but—and his use of the word “though” is telling—he would appreciate the ally’s help in going after the former vice president and his son.

. . . much more

[dawg day]

1. It WAS explicit.

It wasn't spelled out, but here's the exchange:

Zelensky said, "We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins [anti-tank missiles] from the United States for defense purposes."

Trump replies, "I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it."

That's explicit. Trump was clearly saying, we won't sell you the missiles unless you do this favor.

His people will deny it, of course. But at this point, they've already started saying that Ukraine, Soros (!), Biden, and Hillary have been conspiring to bring Trump down.

I hope some day we can apologize fully to Ukraine, a country trying to become a democracy despite Trump's nasty interference.

[DURHAM D]

2. Why did Trump or Barr release the phone conversation and

whistle-blower report? Did someone who secretly hates Trump convince him this was a smart political move? Is it a distraction from something worse that is floating around out there?

[stopdiggin]

3. good question

if this is a deflection .. then whatever's hidden behind door #2 has got to be .. crushing. people behind bars.

[Karadeniz]

4. Rumor has it, he didn't think it was bad news for him. I remember telling a high school math

Teacher that Trump was stupid. She looked shocked and obviously didn't think he had a low IQ. I'd put his IQ 85-90.