It’s game, set, match for Trump on Ukraine

Even though Washington always resembles a three-ring circus, last week it seemed even more so. Republicans were up to all kinds of stupid tricks, trying to undermine or discredit the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump now underway in the House of Representatives.

From Republican ranks, it was one silly stunt after another.

Republicans tried, but failed, to force a House vote to censure Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chair of the intelligence committee. For what? Holding hearings? Doing his job? Trump himself, clearly starting to panic as more evidence against him piles up, went where he always goes when backed into a corner: He put on his racist hat and called the inquiry a “lynching.”

Next, one day after getting their marching orders from Trump at the White House, a motley gang of House Republicans stormed into a secure hearing room of the intelligence committee with cellphone cameras rolling to disrupt the deposition of Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Laura Cooper. “We Republicans have been locked out of this process,” they complained to reporters. Which, let’s face it, is a lie.

Every word of testimony heard in private (in advance of, and in preparation for, public hearings) has been before members of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Judiciary committees — with all members, including 45 Republicans, given equal opportunity to question witnesses. It’s all being done by the books, as spelled out in the Constitution and House rules.

Then, Donald had his attorney play his Trump card. Even if Trump’s guilty as sin, attorney William Consovoy told a federal court, there’s nothing Congress nor the Justice Department can do about it. Consovoy said even if Trump stood in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shot someone, as he promised during the 2016 campaign, law enforcement authorities could not prosecute him — because the president is above the law.

Why such desperation moves by Trump and his followers?

Two reasons. One, they have no choice but to attack the “process” because there’s no way they can defend the “substance” of Trump’s phone call with the president of Ukraine — and most of them don’t even try.

Two, because they know their goose is cooked. Actually, it’s been cooked for a couple of weeks. We know for a fact: Trump withheld $391 million in military assistance approved by Congress for Ukraine unless Ukraine agreed to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, his likely Democratic opponent in 2020. And Trump delivered that message himself in a July 25 phone call to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. We know that’s what happened from multiple sources: from the initial whistleblower complaint; from the memo of the call released by the White House; from texts between Trump envoys to the region, also released by the White House; from the acting White House chief of staff, who admitted there was a quid pro quo; and from Trump himself, who still insists there wasn’t.

But the coup de grace came in the testimony of William Taylor.

Taylor is not some Democratic operative. He is a career diplomat. He is Trump’s acting ambassador to Ukraine, personally recruited for the job by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In his testimony, Taylor related how, in a National Security Council conference call, he was informed by a budget official that under direct orders from Trump, conveyed through acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, military aid to Ukraine was being withheld until Ukraine agreed to investigate the Bidens.

Taylor is one of eight diplomats who have confirmed under oath efforts by Trump and Rudy Giuliani to get Ukraine to intervene in the 2020 campaign. True to form, Trump responded by calling Taylor a “Never Trumper Republican” and “human scum,” but the damage was done. Taylor’s testimony is the most damning evidence yet of a presidential quid pro quo: military aid for political dirt. Which is wrong, illegal and an impeachable offense.

With Taylor’s testimony, Trump’s defense crumbled. Sure, Republican clowns in Congress will stage more distractions. But they’re wasting their time.

Trump will be impeached. It’s no longer a question of if, but when.