MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th September, 2019) The push to impeach US President Donald Trump has reached an absolutely new level as the Ukraine scandal prompts the Democrats to believe that the impeachment inquiry related to the matter may be "warranted" regardless of any potential ramifications, experts told Sputnik.
On Tuesday, the Democrats-controlled House of Representatives launched an impeachment inquiry over allegations that Trump, in an attempt to boost his 2020 re-election bid, pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate activities of former Vice President Joe Biden's son in Ukraine in their July phone talk. The house also claims that Trump threatened to withhold military aid to Ukraine unless Zelenskyy did him that favor.
On Wednesday, the White House unclassified an unredacted transcript of the phone conversation in question. The transcript showed that the US president did ask Zelenskyy to work with his personal lawyer and the US attorney general to "look into" the case of Joe Biden, who "went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution" into his son's possible corruption in Ukraine. Zelenskyy, in turn, assured Trump that Ukraine's next prosecutor general would be "100 percent my person" and would look into the Biden case. The transcript did not contain any signs that the US president overtly threatened to withhold any financial assistance to Ukraine.
"Impeachment has been under discussion for some months given the various allegations that have been made against president Trump, and the suggestion that he has harmed US interests in his dealings with other states. It is therefore not new by any means. However, as noted above it may be argued that this goes above that which has been argued before. It certainly has compelled [Speaker of the United States House of Representatives] Nancy Pelosi to get behind the request for impeachment and this attempt has support," Toby Cadman, a co-founder of London-based Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers, told Sputnik.
Though the international law expert refused to assess whether Trump's attempts to encourage Kiev to probe the issue were sufficient grounds to justify an impeachment inquiry, he noted that such a type of stories could be interpreted as the executive power's interference in criminal investigation.
"It is certainly unusual for one President to ask another seek to intervene in a situation that could be construed as an interference with the independent functioning of an institution such as the State Prosecutor. The rule of law exists to ensure that the separation of powers exists. Neither the President of the United States nor the President of Ukraine has the power to launch a criminal investigation. A Prosecutor functions independently to ensure that principles of democracy are maintained and that the executive does not exert pressure on individuals," Cadman said.
When asked whether the whole scandal could be viewed as a routine fight between the two parties as part of the 2020 campaign, the expert remarked that the United States "has for many years been polarised by party politics, and this can often lead to the actual issues being clouded."
According to Cadman, "the fact remains however that very serious allegations have been made against President Trump, and if there appears to be an evidential foundation for those allegations then there ought to be the appropriate investigation to follow."
Kyle Kopko, an associate professor of political science at Elizabethtown College and expert in US constitutional law, agrees that "while there are always partisan conflicts that precede a presidential election, an impeachment inquiry is a new level of seriousness."
"In recent days, a number of moderate Democrats have shifted their position to now support an impeachment inquiry. Previously, some Democratic members of the House thought that support for an impeachment inquiry may jeopardize their electoral chances in 2020. Now, it appears that, at least for some House Democrats, they believe that an impeachment inquiry is warranted despite any potential political fallout," Kopko told Sputnik.
Kopko, nevertheless, doubted that that the transcript contained any evidence to indict Trump for alleged misconduct.
"While many in the United States Congress have characterized this exchange as improper and setting a dangerous precedent because it opens the door to foreign interference in a presidential election, there does not appear to be enough evidence to establish a quid-pro-quo relationship based only on the transcript," he added.
The whole scandal around the July phone talk emerged last week after a whistleblower shared the story about Trump's alleged pressure on Zelenskyy with media.
In 2016, Biden notably admitted publicly to having threatened the Ukraine authorities with withholding $1 billion in US loan guarantees if Kiev did not fire the prosecutor who had been investigating a Ukrainian gas company linked to his son Hunter.
