HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI SAID TESTIMONY FROM TWO SENIOR DIPLOMATS ‘CORROBORATED EVIDENCE OF BRIBERY UNCOVERED IN THE INQUIRY AND THAT THE PRESIDENT ABUSED POWER AND VIOLATED HIS OATH ...’
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 offence, 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 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.”
Bribery, she suggested, amounted to a translation of quid pro quo that would stand to be more accessible to Americans.
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.
In a message to Trump and response to GOP criticism, Pelosi said, “If the president has something that is exculpatory — Mr. President that means you have anything that shows your innocence — then he should make that known.”
Asked why Trump’s conduct amounted to bribery Thursday, Pelosi said, “The bribe is to grant or withhold military assistance in return for a public statement of a fake investigation into the elections. That’s bribery.”