High Crimes and Misdemeanors: Donald Trump

​Today I will take a look at whether President Trump should be impeached. This is based on what we know today. It is certainly possible that there is incriminating evidence that has not seen the light of day.

I am certainly not one of his fans. However, we need to ignore any personal or political biases. Anyone, regardless of party or personality, should be treated fairly.
The big question is what constitutes an impeachable offense. The Constitution uses the phrase high crimes and misdemeanors. Some set the bar really low. One of the committee heads investigating Trump said calling the Mueller investigation a witch hunt was obstruction of justice, presumably an impeachable offense. To me, someone has to commit a serious crime or grossly abuse the powers of their office.

There are three activities we need to focus on. The first is the effort to get negative information about Joe Biden. Every campaign does opposition research on their opponents. Having a president involved is unseemly. It is definitely inappropriate for him to talk to other heads of head about it. He deserves to be roundly criticized but I don’t believe it is an impeachable offense.

Next was his decision to slow down aid to Ukraine. This is a perfectly legal action unless there was a quid pro quo.

Finally, there is the phone call with President Zelenskyy. It was a very friendly call. Nothing is mentioned about the aid package. A high-level Ukrainian official said they didn’t know about it for a month. If Zelienskyy knew about it, I think he would have said something. Perhaps it was Trump’s intent to tie the aid for getting information on Biden. However, I see no evidence to prove it.
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In short, I don’t see anything approaching an impeachable offense.