Democrats hone in on crime of bribery

Republicans argue witnesses’ testimony is second-hand, hearsay.

WASHINGTON — Escalating her case for impeachment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday accused President Donald Trump of committing bribery by seeking to use U.S. military aid as leverage to persuade the Ukrainian government to conduct investigations that could politically benefit Trump.

The shift toward bribery as an impeachable offense, one of only two crimes specifically cited in the Constitution, comes after nearly two months of debate over whether Trump’s conduct amounted to a “quid pro quo” — a lawyerly Latin term describing an exchange of things of value.

Wednesday’s public testimony from two senior diplomats, Pelosi, D-Calif., said, “corroborated evidence of bribery uncovered in the inquiry and that the president abused power and violated his oath by threatening to withhold military aid and a White House meeting in exchange for an investigation into his political rival.”

Article II of the Constitution holds that the president and other civil federal officials “shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

Pelosi’s remarks came a day after William Taylor, the top American envoy in Kyiv, and George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary of state overseeing Ukraine policy, told lawmakers in the House’s first public impeachment hearing since 1998 that they were deeply troubled by an apparent perversion of U.S. policy done at the apparent behest of Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Trump himself.

Republicans, meanwhile, used much of their time to dismiss the testimony of Taylor and Kent as “hearsay” and “second-hand” information that could not elucidate Trump’s personal action or motives surrounding the requests for investigations targeting Hunter Biden, son of former vice president Joe Biden, who is now running against Trump, as well as a debunked theory that Ukraine not Russia tried to undermine Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Speaking toreporters Thursday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., dismissed Wednesday’s hearing and the impeachment probe generally as a waste of Congress’s time — referring to a March comment Pelosi made to The Washington Post Magazine where she called impeachment unwise “unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan” to warrant it.

“There’s nothing compelling,” McCarthy said. “There’s nothing overwhelming, and the only bipartisan vote we had was to end impeachment.”

GETTY IMAGES House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went over the corroboration from two senior diplomats that President Trump violated his oath by attempting to withhold military aid to Ukraine.

GETTY IMAGES House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday’s hearings included nothing compelling and were essentially a waste of time for the House of Representatives.