NO ONE is above the law. Not even the president of the United States. The impeachment hearing that may lead to the ouster of Donald J. Trump will begin as early as this week, according to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Chair, Rep. Adam Schiff.
While this may sound like déjà vu of the very same issues of abuse of power alleged against Trump in the Mueller investigation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has now joined the more progressive members of the Democrat-led leadership of the House of Representatives in launching an impeachment inquiry, a precursor to the filing of Articles of Impeachment of the 45th President of the United States.
The Constitution mandates that it is the obligation of the House of Representatives to investigate and pass Articles of Impeachment against a sitting president if based on evidence, he is deemed to be unfit of and/or has abused the power accorded to the Office of the President. Bad news for Trump: the Democrats have the numbers to impeach him.
The Constitution has accorded the power to hold impeachment trial sand convict a sitting president. Worse for Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday, Sept. 30 that the Senate would have to hold a trial if the House passes articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.
Trump and his cohorts have been peddling a conspiracy theory that this is another witch hunt pushed by the Democrats, the mainstream media, the “deep states,” and even involving the U.S. intelligence community to oust him from power.
DIGEST THIS: The 45th president of the United States, accorded with he power and public trust when he took the oath “to faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” is now alleged to have abused the power and resources of the position.
In a call on July 25 with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump sought to obtain dirt on his political opponent Joe Biden in the context of the United States military aid to Ukraine still being withheld, and then tried to cover up the crime.
As the Washington Post reported, “President Trump’s attempt to pressure the leader of Ukraine followed a months-long fight inside the administration that sidelined national security officials and empowered political loyalists — including the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani — to exploit the U.S. relationship with Kiev for political purpose.”
Digging up dirt on Biden
Trump and Giuliani tactically sought to divert the narrative to another conspiracy theory they hatched against former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
As reported by the Daily Beast, “Rudy Giuliani has alleged that the former vice president’s son was involved in corruption during his nearly five years at Burisma, but has not provided any evidence to support those claims.
In fact, Yuri Lutsenko, a former top Ukrainian prosecutor told the Washington Post that Hunter Biden did not violate any laws while he was on the board of Ukrainian private gas company Burisma.
“Hunter Biden cannot be responsible for violations of the management of Burisma that took place two years before his arrival,” Lutsenko told the Post.
Trump and Giuliani and their cohorts have been hammering on their allegation that VP Biden interfered to dismiss the prosecutor handling the Burisma case to save his son Hunter.
This is a totally false and malicious talking point because VP Biden, along with the international community, wanted to use the sanction as leverage to oust the corrupt prosecutor who had not done his job to prosecute Burisma for all its violations. Nothing was hidden about this deal. It was meant to push Ukraine to get rid of corruption so it could get the aide it needed from the United States.
This is a direct contrast to what Trump wanted to do — use U.S. military aid to force Ukraine to investigate the Bidens to benefit himself and his political ambition, not the United States.
But with Trump talking about withholding the military aid Ukraine desperately needs from the United States, the Daily Beast reported that “Ukraine is likely to pursue the cases Trump urged Zelensky to reconsider during their notorious phone call—but not in the way Trump intended.”
The White House tried to cover everything up, cognizant of the gravity of this potential crime of allowing interference of a foreign government in the 2020 Presidential Elections just so Trump can win the election and stay in power.
The whistleblower
Mga kababayan, this is NOT a witch hunt, nor is it politically motivated. These allegations had been the subject of the complaint of a U.S. intelligence community whistleblower knowledgable about how all of this transpired and has gathered evidentiary documents to back up his/her allegations over concerns of a potential violation of campaign finance law and abuse of power.
The complaint was filed with the intelligence community inspector general on August 12. While the law mandates that the complaint should immediately be turned over to Congress, Acting Intelligence Chief Joseph Maguire said White House officials raised the possibility that the complaint could be covered by executive privilege but did not give a definitive ruling on the issue, while the Office of Legal Counsel said the complaint did not meet the statutory definition of an “urgent concern” under the whistleblower law.
However, when the inspector general ultimately informed Congress about the existence of the whistleblower complaint, and with the scheduled testimony of Maguire, the White House scrambled to immediately make public a “transcript” of the call, which Democrats said was actually just a highly edited “memo” deleting key verbatim components of the 30-minute phone call.
Then immediately, the Justice Department ruled that it found no campaign finance violation in Trump’s Call with the Ukrainian Leader.
Trump and his cohorts also launched an attack against the whistleblower, whose identity and security are protected pursuant to the Whistleblower Law.
The Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) protects federal employees and applicants for employment who lawfully disclose information they reasonably believe evidences:
• a violation of law, rule, or regulation;
• gross mismanagement;
• a gross waste of funds;
• an abuse of authority;
• or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety.
Under the WPA, certain federal employees may not take or fail to take, or threaten to take or fail to take; any personnel action against an employee or applicant for employment because of the employee or applicant’s protected whistleblowing.
But what has Trump been doing? He has been discrediting and attacking the whistleblower who he does not know and even called him and those who will testify against him as “spies” and sent a creepy message that spies should be executed.
This is, in fact, the intent of the White House — to send a chilling effect to and scare witnesses who will be called and subpoenaed to testify in the House impeachment hearings. This is clearly an obstruction of justice.
Trump also warned that there will be a “civil war” if he is impeached — sending signals and inciting his followers to violence just to protect his own personal interests to hold on to power no matter what the cost. This, too is a violation of the laws and could be an impeachable offense.
Speaking before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, September 26, acting intelligence chief Joseph Maguire expressed his support for the whistleblower, who he affirmed had acted in good faith and followed the law and regular procedures for raising a concern with the inspector general.
This has been a pattern of dirty unlawful tactics. The New York Times reported that “President Trump pushed the Australian prime minister during a recent telephone call to help Attorney General William P. Barr gather information for a Justice Department inquiry that Mr. Trump hopes will discredit the Mueller investigation, according to two American officials with knowledge of the call.”
“The White House curbed access to a transcript of the call — which the president made at Mr. Barr’s request — to a small group of aides, one of the officials said. The restriction was unusual and similar to the handling of a July call with the Ukrainian president that is at the heart of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.”
ABANGAN ANG SUSUNOD NA KABANATA!
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
