Democrats and others are accusing Trump of seeking to take down a political rival (Joe Biden) by extorting the help of a foreign country (Ukraine).
There is no evidence to support these accusations of a Trump crime.
The situation is as if Trump were kissing Ukraine’s President Zelensky, the Democrats would claim that Trump is assaulting or raping Zelensky.
The phone call transcript reveals that Trump committed no crime. He didn’t shake Ukraine down. He didn’t threaten anything. He didn’t extort anything. The Democrats are saying there’s a crime where there is none.
What then was the telephone call about?
Trump sought international judicial cooperation with Ukraine. He was doing his duty in a perfectly legal way.
Trump asked for cooperation in a judicial matter that necessarily linked the U.S. government with the government of Ukraine. Trump sought to create a pathway for U.S. justice officials to cooperate with Ukraininian officials. To quote him in his phone call:
“I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike…”
We indeed have been “through a lot” in the last 3 years during the Russia collusion accusations perpetrated by Trump antagonists. And we still haven’t gotten to the bottom of it. The final chapters have yet to be printed that provide the true story of what happened. The role of Ukrainian parties and Crowdstrike remains to become common and accepted knowledge — accepted by all, including all those who got it wrong and whose accusations and stories were false. Truth demands that much, and truth demands going deeply and following leads wherever they go. They go to Ukraine. They go to Biden. Democrats made their bed and now they don’t want Trump looking under the covers to see what they’re covering up.
“I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it.” Here, Trump seeks to create pathways of judicial authority that are officially approved of by the U.S. and Ukraine. This is perfectly legal and perfectly appropriate.
The judicial officials of different countries, including police, prosecutors and investigators, frequently cooperate internationally. There are large specialized theoretical, historical and empirical literatures on this cooperation.
States exist in a relation of anarchy, one with another. There is no single sovereign authority over all of them. Relations among states do not arise of their own accord. They must be forged. This is what Trump is doing in this conversation. It is statecraft. It is what leaders do.
Trump adds “Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible.” Does that sound like extortion, a threat or a crime? It sounds like asking for cooperation if it’s possible.
Zelensky takes it that way because he immediately replies “…it is very important and we are open for any future cooperation. We are ready to open a new page on cooperation in relations between the United States and Ukraine.” He goes on at some length. In fact, he informs Trump that he’s already got the ball rolling. He’s recalled the ambassador and he’s had one of his people in touch with Giuliani.
Now the subject matter shifts somewhat. Zelensky commits of his own accord to a sound investigatory process with these words:
“I also plan to surround myself with great people and in addition to that investigation, I guarantee as the President of Ukraine that all the investigations will be done openly and candidly..That I can assure you.”
At this point, Trump approves. “Good because I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that’s really unfair.” And why shouldn’t Trump approve? Is that a crime? Is there something criminal about approving of a good judicial process? The discussion at this point is about good vs. bad prosecutions and investigations. Trump expresses his opinion that shutting down a good prosecutor was “unfair”. In what context did that occur? In the Biden case. Trump says
“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.”
The fact is that the Biden affair has to do with Ukraine. This affair is in the public domain, widely discussed for several years; but the true story remains obscured. The fact is that it’s linked to what was a bad process in which the prosecution was curtailed. We now have strong evidence of the pressures exerted by the government to stop that prosecution. Trump wants straight arrow prosecution to be enabled. He wants the truth to come out. How else can he do his job and enforce the law? It’s not Trump’s fault that the trails lead to Ukraine and not his doing that Biden is involved. Trump wants to assure a sound judicial process now. Again, what he’s doing is making links that work to this end. This is why he says “whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great”.
It’s by now obvious that there are intelligence officials who strongly take issue with Trump’s new directions in foreign policy. This is why this telephone call was leaked to Adam Schiff, who has his own anti-Trump crusade going. Trump’s White House has “enemy” agents within it apparently, people who seek to undermine his agenda and actively are inventing ways to do just that.
The onslaught of negative stories about Trump is not abating. The House impeachment inquiry is bound to provide new seeds of fabricated charges and stories.
9:58 am on September 28, 2019
