“... taking the testimony or statements of persons; providing documents, records and other items of evidence; locating or identifying persons or items; serving documents; transferring persons in custody for testimony or other purposes; executing requests for searches and seizures; assisting in proceedings related to immobilization and forfeiture of assets, restitution, and collection of fines; and, rendering any other form of assistance not prohibited by the laws of the Requested State. The scope of the Treaty includes not only criminal offenses, but also proceedings related to criminal matters, which may be civil or administrative in nature.”It’s against this backdrop that the now-infamous July phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should be seen for what it was—a perfectly legal and ethical conversation seeking cooperation on an investigation into corruption under a juridical agreement that was forged 21 years prior.
To state this more simply: Trump’s actions with Ukraine aren’t impeachable offenses.
“I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike ... I guess you have one of your wealthy people ... The [DNC] server, they say Ukraine has it,” Trump said to Zelensky.
Additional Facts Surrounding Ukraine
It’s also important to consider these additional facts when following the impeachment hearings:- Zelensky said he felt absolutely no pressure from the Trump administration.
- The former prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden said that he did feel pressure to drop the case.
- The “whistleblower” doesn’t even qualify as a real whistleblower, because he or she didn’t have firsthand knowledge of these events. Their story is based on hearsay.
- Curiously, just days before the whistleblower complaint was filed, the Intelligence Community Inspector General (IG) changed the whistleblower policy to allow hearsay/secondhand accounts.
- On Sept. 17, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on MSNBC that his office had no contact with the whistleblower. He also claimed to have no knowledge of the contents of the whistleblower complaint. Yet, the whistleblower secretly met with Schiff’s aide and didn’t disclose this fact to the IG.
- The whistleblower’s lead attorney is a Biden donor.
- The whistleblower has previously worked with two members of Schiff’s staff.
- Trump’s actions broke no laws.
- Biden is being investigated for potential corruption that occurred in the past. This phone call and request from Trump to Zelensky has absolutely nothing to do with the 2020 election.
Why the Intense Impeachment Hysteria?
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past three years, Democrats have sought to impeach Trump since before he was even sworn in. The Ukraine scandal and soon-to-be full House impeachment effort is simply the latest attempt by the “Get Trump Mafia” to have him removed from office, despite there being no grounds to do so.Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution says that a president “shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Adhering to a two-decades-old treaty hardly constitutes any of those things. Therefore, impeachment efforts against Trump are baseless.
Our constitutional republic isn’t under assault by the Trump administration. It’s under assault by politicians whose seething resentment is causing them to abuse their power and turn our core, fundamental constitutional principles on their head in an effort to undo the results of the 2016 election.
Impeachment hearings also provide a great distraction from the upcoming release of the Justice Department Inspector General’s report and findings of the criminal investigation by U.S. Attorney John Durham into alleged illegal activities conducted by the Obama administration, vis-a-vis the origins of the Russia probe.