04 October 2019

On the Lawn

As he spoke to reporters on the White House lawn yesterday, Donald Trump committed two crimes in plain sight (details here): he again asked Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 elections and then asked China to do it, too.

As the linked piece notes: "Trump is being impeached for using his office to pressure foreign countries to investigate his political rivals. It is not clear Trump understands that, because he simply continues committing this offense in broad daylight."

This is not the first time that Trump's actions suggest that he thinks because he does it, as President, it's automatically legal. As Richard Nixon could tell him, he's very much mistaken.

This adds further evidence for the House of Representatives to use in any articles of impeachment they might draft. If Trump actually listened to anyone giving him legal advice, he likely was told that he should not comment in any way on the proceedings, much like criminal defense attorneys do when a client is facing indictment.

To make sure that Trump realized what he was doing was a crime, the chair of the Federal Election Commission later in the day issued a reminder that seeking foreign political help is illegal (details here). That's not the first time she has issued such a warning, but of course Trump never listens to anyone because he thinks he knows everything.

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