Day 988: Not that it’s needed, but there’s a ton of documented quid pro quo in Trump-Ukraine conspiracy

Proof of quid pro quo is not necessary to prove that Donald Trump committed impeachable conduct and/or illegal offenses in dealing with Ukraine.

However, thanks to text messages between members of Trump’s team and career diplomats, it’s clear that there is quid pro quo. Messages provided to Congress by former U.S. Special Envoy Kurt Volker show just how deep the corruption between Trump and Ukraine ran.

In newly disclosed text messages shared with Congress, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine writes to a group of other American diplomats that “I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”

It didn’t stop there, as Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was mentioned as part of the conspiracy (that he’s already admitted to being a part of on national TV).

Forget aid, Ukraine was told they couldn’t even get a White House visit without publicly announcing an investigation into Joe Biden and his family.

Gordon Sondland, a Trump megadonor who was appointed U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, was careful to keep moving conversations from memorialized text messages to unrecorded phone calls for laughably obvious reasons.

Former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara was blown away by the openness of the quid pro quo.

There’s corruption going on throughout the Trump administration and it starts at the top. The Ukraine issue — even without getting into the similar requests of China and potentially other nations —is a massive scandal that is enough to carry multiple impeachment charges on its own.

Trump tried to pressure a foreign nation to investigate a political rival in exchange for a White House visit and funding. If a president isn’t going to get impeached for that, a president isn’t going to get impeached for anything.

The House’s impeachment inquiry is almost certainly going to proceed to a vote in the relatively near future. If and when that happens, Trump will be impeached. During a trial in the other chamber, Senate Republicans will have to decide if they’re willing to continue tolerating a corrupt president operating in an inherently undemocratic and un-American manner.

988 days in, 474 to go

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