Explosive new revelations just weakened Trump's impeachment defenses

[swag]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/12/30/explosive-new-revelations-just-weakened-trumps-impeachment-defenses/

Greg Sargent
Opinion writer

Excerpt: . . .

It’s impossible to square all this with the lines from Trump’s defenders — that there was no pressure on Ukraine; that the money was withheld for reasonable policy purposes; and that there was no extortion because it was ultimately released. As the Times shows, that only came after the scheme was outed.

Multiple officials worried that the hold violated the law or worked extensively to skirt it. Others saw Trump’s actions as contrary to the national interest and never got a sufficient explanation for his motives. One top official executing the scheme tried to distance the White House from it and keep it quiet.

What makes all this new information really damning, however, is that many of these officials who were directly involved with Trump’s freezing of aid are the same ones Trump blocked from appearing before the House impeachment inquiry.

This should make it inescapable that McConnell wants a trial with no testimony from these people — Democrats want to hear from Mulvaney, Bolton, Duffey and Blair — precisely because he, too, wants to prevent us from ever gaining a full accounting.

We now have a much clearer glimpse into the murky depths of just how much more these officials know about the scheme — and just how much McConnell and Trump are determined to make sure we don’t ever learn. That’s so indefensible that it might even breach the levee of the media’s both-sidesing tendencies.

. . . more

[GeorgeGist]

1. Could they impeach McConnell ...

for obstruction?

[swag]

2. No, but he could be expelled (not likely)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_senators_expelled_or_censured