Biff_Poindexter
Diamond Member
Trump waived any executive privilege on Bolton....In fact, Trump did assert executive privilege regarding testimony and documents the Democrats wanted and the proper way for the Democrats to have proceeded would have been to go to court and demand the documents and testimony and not to level the made up charge of obstructing Congress. While you may believe Trump asked for the investigation only to benefit himself, no evidence has been presented to support that belief, which means no evidence has been presented to support the charge of abuse of power.Trump didn't assert executive privilege. He asserted on camera that he would simply withhold everything they asked for including testimony. After he himself didn't assert it on the summary of the phone call. That is not how executive privilege works even if he did claim it.No evidence was presented to show that Trump asked Ukraine to investigate various things that occured around the 2016 election, including what Joe Biden did, only to improve his chances for reelection, so there was no basis for charging abuse of power, and since the assertion of executive privilege is not an impeachable offense, there was not basis for charging obstruction of Congress. The whole thing was fraudulent from the start.The standard of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt in any court. It's not if we can conceivably come up with an alternative explanation no matter how farfetched you can not convict. It is extremely farfetched to claim that the reason you asked Ukraine to investigate your political rival and some conspiracy theory and ONLY those things and are prepared to punish you if you don't is that we are concerned with corruption.None of this constitutes an abuse of power unless it can be shown that the President did these things only for the purpose of improving his chances for reelection, and no evidence has been presented to support this claim. The articles of impeachment simply have no legitimacy.They have a summary of the call where the president flat out asks to investigate his political rival and some conspiracy theory long since debunked. We have multiple administration officials attesting that the aid to Ukraine was withheld. We have Trump on camera admitting he asked he Ukrainians and China to investigate the Bidens. we have Mullvany confirming the aid was withheld. We have the ambassador to Europe saying under oath he communicated to the Ukrainians that the aid and a meeting with Trump were conditional on the investigations. Probably forgot a few
When you say no facts, what facts are missing in your opinion?
By the way, it's also moving the goalposts. You were claiming the Democrats have no reason to impeach, now you are stating the reason wasn't good enough.
As for the rest. The good thing about Trump is that he says the silent part out loud. His intent as to why he asked the Ukrainians to investigate the Biden's and crowdstrike has been made sufficiently clear by testimony and actions within the administration to make it clear beyond a REASONABLE doubt. If this was a criminal and not impeachment trail I don't think securing a conviction would be a problem on abuse of power. Maybe a bit trickier on obstruction since that is mostly an untested legal issue but I'dd still be more comfortable as a prosecutor there.
Legal Experts: Trump Reaction to Bolton Effectively Waived Executive Privilege Claim, Was ‘Another Unforced Error’