Trump has already admitted to abuse of power, multiple times
Trump has already admitted to the charges in impeachment article 1
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Article I: Abuse of power: “…Donald John Trump has abused the powers of the Presidency, in that: Using the powers of his high office, President Trump solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 United States Presidential election. …Trump used the powers of the Presidency in a manner that compromised the national security of the United States and undermined the integrity of the United States democratic process. He thus ignored and injured the interests of the Nation.”
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During the hearings, Republicans tried to claim that Trump did not do what the White House rough transcript said he did – ask a foreign country to investigate a political rival.
• Journalist Manu Raju asked Rep. Debbie Lesko why she thinks it is “ever okay for an American president to ask a foreign power to investigate a political rival?” To which Lesko responded “He didn’t. He didn’t do that.”
Instead, these Republicans argue, Trump was interested in investigating corruption in general.
The White House rough transcript proves them wrong.
TRUMP (to Zelensky): 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.
Trump’s own words on national television prove the Republicans wrong.
Just weeks ago Trump went on Fox and Friends and admitted that he uses “corruption” to refer to his favorite conspiracy theories, like the one that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election. He admitted that he withheld military aid because of these conspiracies.
Trump: “They have the server, right, from the DNC, Democratic National Committee… They gave the server to CrowdStrike or whatever it’s called, which is a country — which is a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian… That’s what I asked, actually, in my phone call [to Zelenksy]. I mean, I asked it very point-blank, because we’re looking for corruption. There’s tremendous corruption. Why should we be giving hundreds of millions of dollars to countries when there’s this kind of corruption?”
In a separate instance, Trump told reporters that “corruption” also referred to Joe Biden:
Trump: “The conversation I had [with Zelensky] was largely congratulatory. It was largely corruption—all of the corruption taking place. It was largely the fact that we don’t want our people, like Vice President Biden and his son, creating to [sic] the corruption already in the Ukraine.”
Finally, in an October interview on the White House lawn, Trump admitted to the basics of the abuse of power charges on national television:
Q: What exactly did you hope Zelensky would do about the Bidens after your phone call?
A: Well I would think that if they were honest about it, they’d start a major investigation into the Bidens. It’s a very simple answer. They should investigate the Bidens… likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens. Because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.