The House doesn't need an impeachment inquiry to confirm Trump's wrongdoing. Just look at his hotel.

[Demovictory9]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-house-doesnt-need-an-impeachment-inquiry-to-confirm-trumps-wrongdoing-just-look-at-his-hotel/2019/09/25/3b95e41e-dfd9-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html

The House doesn’t need an impeachment inquiry to confirm Trump’s wrongdoing. Just look at his hotel.

The House just launched its “impeachment inquiry,” but that’s a bit of a misnomer, because it implies questions must be asked to discover whether President Trump is guilty of wrongdoing.

In reality, his corruption is hidden in plain sight.

Consider two events that occurred simultaneously at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

Trump, after acknowledging that he suspended military aid to Ukraine just before a phone call with the Ukrainian president in which he sought dirt on Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, released a rough transcript of the call, as though the moves would exonerate him. Instead, they provided evidence Trump was proposing the very arms-for-dirt trade he denies:

Ukrainian president: “I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps. Specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins [anti-tank missiles] from the United States for defense purposes.”

Trump: “I would like you to do us a favor though. .?.?. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine.”

Trump went on to ask for help undermining the Russia probe’s findings and digging up dirt on Biden and his son.

Whoa — a quid pro quo, no?

Alexandra Petri: But was it quid pro quo? A guide.

As the call notes were being released, a joint House committee opened a hearing on Trump’s lease of the Old Post Office, now the Trump International Hotel in Washington. Trump has violated the plain language of the lease (it says no U.S. elected official can be part of or benefit from the lease), and the plain language of the Constitution (it says no U.S. officeholder can accept payments from any “foreign state”). But the General Services Administration found a novel way to avoid declaring that Trump had obviously violated both: It looked the other way.


How did the GSA, under Trump’s authority, declare his hotel in “full compliance” with its lease? Well, in two hours of testimony by GSA Inspector General Carol F. Ochoa and Trump appointee Dan Mathews, the GSA’s commissioner of the Public Buildings Service, lawmakers learned that GSA:

● Ignored the emoluments issue and related breach-of-lease issue.

● Disregarded existing legal precedent and instructions.

● Didn’t seek legal guidance from the Justice Department.

● Ignored the inspector general’s recommendation that it revisit the emoluments question.

● Doesn’t audit the property, instead taking the word of Trump’s accountants.

● Doesn’t keep track of payments by foreign governments.

● Won’t provide financial information about the hotel to Congress.

● Won’t provide its legal reasoning to Congress.

● Resolved the matter by deciding to remove conflict-of-interest restrictions on Trump (and future presidents) from future GSA leases.

But there’s really nothing to see here, the Trump appointee explained.

[safeinOhio]

1. "Arms for Dirt".

Mentioned on Morning Joe just now.

Kind of catchy, don't ya think?