Democrats in the United States House of Representatives, which they control, confirmed their seriousness about impeaching president Donald Trump by now including, for the first time, bribery in the impeachment charges they intend to file against the president.
House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Wednesday spoke for the first time about bribery, a strong indication Democrats will include this crime in the impeachment charges against Trump. The United States Constitution limits the grounds for impeachment to "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors". The precise meaning of the phrase "high Crimes and Misdemeanors" isn't defined by the Constitution, however.
Pelosi brushed aside the Latin phrase "quid pro quo" Democrats have been using to describe Trump's actions toward Ukraine and on Thursday replaced it with "bribery."
"Quid pro quo: bribery," Pelosi said of Trump's July 25 phone call in which he asked the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, asking the latter for a political "favor".
"It's perfectly wrong. It's bribery," was how Pelosi described this phone call. "The cover-up makes what Nixon did look almost small. Almost small.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) on Wednesday said Trump will likely be charged with "bribery" and "high crimes and misdemeanors," which are both impeachable offenses under the Constitution. Schiff made this remark as the first two witnesses were testifying at the first day of the public hearings about Trump's quid pro quo with Ukraine.
"I don't think any decision has been made on the ultimate question about whether articles of impeachment should be brought," said Schiff. "But based on what the witnesses have had to say so far, there are any number of potentially impeachable offenses, including bribery, including high crimes and misdemeanors."
Schiff clarified what bribery means in an impeachment inquiry.
"Bribery, first of all, as the founders understood bribery, it was not as we understand it in law today. It was much broader," according to Schiff. "It connoted the breach of the public trust in a way where you're offering official acts for some personal or political reason, not in the nation's interest."
Schiff noted to prove bribery, you have to show Trump was "soliciting something of value." Schiff said multiple witnesses before his committee have given testimony to prove this point.
Schiff said Democrats "want the American people to hear the evidence for themselves in the witnesses' own words, and our goal is to present the facts seriously and soberly."
Wednesday's open door hearing by the intelligence committee saw chargé d'affaires for Ukraine William Taylor and deputy assistant secretary of state George Kent, both testify under oath, and lent credence to Schiff's observation.
The House impeachment inquiry centers on whether Trump abused the power of his office by withholding $391 million in military aid to Ukraine in exchange for political dirt on former vice president Joe Biden, who is laying strong claim to the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
