Day 992: Trump begins Ukraine cover-up as he claims he has nothing to hide
While Donald Trump continues to assert that his call and other actions with the Ukrainian president were “perfect,” his subsequent decisions tell a very different story.
The White House announced Tuesday that they would not participate in the House’s impeachment inquiry.
To be clear, the White House doesn’t have a choice. Congress has subpoena power and they can call witnesses and request documents for investigatory purposes. Failing to respond to subpoenas can incur fines and even jail time.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has previously said that these types of actions can trigger additional articles of impeachment. Though he was talking about Bill Clinton, the message is just the same for Trump.
The White began their obstructive defense earlier Tuesday, when they blocked U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland from testifying before the House committees and turning over pertinent materials. The question is now whether Democrats intend on charging Sondland with contempt of Congress.
Some pundits questioned the timing of the White House’s actions as being especially suspicious.
Sondland exchanged damning text messages with other diplomats that indicated there was quid pro quo: Ukraine would investigate the Biden family and they would be able to purchase weapons from the U.S. and their new president would get an invitation to the White House. There are other text messages and emails on his personal devices— a violation of protocols that Republicans once found abhorrent — that the State Department, White House and Sondland have all refused to turn over.
The White House decided that having Sondland defy a subpoena, risk imprisonment, and make it really obvious they were afraid of what he’d say was a better option than him testifying.
Foolishly, Trump took credit for the decision, which was previously blamed on the State Department.
Trump doesn’t get to decide who has to comply with a congressional subpoena. There’s a system of checks-and-balances and co-equal branches of government for a reason. As Graham pointed out when discussing Bill Clinton, these types of actions should add more impeachment counts.
Trump is trying to dodge an impeachment inquiry simply because he doesn’t like it and thinks he’s an authoritarian. That’t not how the Constitution works.
He’s trying to cover-up an ever-growing conspiracy because Sondland — a former Trump megadonor — was speaking with and taking direction from Trump directly. Sondland’s testimony and written messages could be the final nail in the coffin for impeachment. For Trump, that’s worth covering up at all costs.
992 days in, 470 to go
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