The Donald Trump Impeachment Investigation: Witch Hunt, My Eye!

A witch hunt? That’s what Donald Trump and the Republican politicians defending him tooth and nail over the Ukraine affair are calling it. But that makes no sense. Not after what we heard on Wednesday.

The first public testimony before the U.S. Congress in the Trump impeachment investigation have given ammunition to those convinced that Trump abused his power. The least honorable U.S. president of the last four decades seems to have made fatal mistakes with both the United States and Ukraine.

And it turns out that the famous telephone call from Trump to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on July 25, during which the U.S. president pressured his counterpart to investigate Joe Biden’s son (and a conspiracy theory linked to the 2016 U.S. presidential election), was just the tip of the iceberg.

At least, that’s what the highest U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, William Taylor, and another State Department official, George Kent, have alleged. According to them, along with the call in question, there was a concerted effort by several members of Trump’s entourage for the Ukrainian president to publicly announce an investigation.

Those close to the U.S. president, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, even set up an irregular diplomatic channel. The goal: to make Zelenskiy understand that if he didn’t obey, he would never see the $400 million promised to ensure his country’s security. And he wouldn’t be invited to the White House, either.

Taylor methodically explained how this White House offensive unfolded. He also allowed us to understand the risks by analyzing its impact on the national security of Ukraine and the United States.

He said he concluded, when visiting the Ukrainian region of Donbass, where pro-Russian rebels can be found, that “more Ukrainians would undoubtedly die” if the U.S. did not quickly send aid. And because U.S. security depends on the stability of the European continent and the containment of Russia, Ukraine’s fate is important to Washington.

But not to Trump, obviously.

The more time passes, the more we understand that he has no scruples about putting his personal interests before those of his country.

In this regard, Taylor reported that a member of his team overheard a discussion between the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, and the U.S. president last July. Asked what Trump thought of Ukraine, the ambassador reportedly answered that “President Trump cares more about the investigations of Biden”!

We will see if this statement is corroborated in the next few days, but as appalling as these remarks are, they would not be surprising.

At the end of Wednesday’s hearings, you’d have to admit that the Democrats were right to allow the American public to be able to see this testimony. The closed-door sessions had to stop.

This is a historic moment. We are trying to assess whether what Trump did is punishable under the U.S. Constitution as “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Well, if you look at the glass as half empty, you might say that it’s a drop in the bucket, since the president has almost no chance of being removed. Republicans have the majority in the Senate, the branch of Congress that has the last word in this process. It is also feared that many Americans will eventually conclude that Trump is being persecuted by the Democrats.

On the other hand, what is certainly laudable is that Americans now have the chance to better evaluate the extent of of the U.S. president’s perfidy in meddling in the Ukraine affair.