In a recent letter, Donald N. Anderson repeated Fox News and Republican talking points about hateful Democrats scheming to reverse the 2016 election. I must correct a few points.
The first impeachment article doesn’t concern “a short holdup in aid to Ukraine” — the charge would hold even if the holdup hadn’t occurred at all, because the charge is solicitation of bribery. Trump asked the Ukrainian president to bribe him by producing bogus investigations in order to get him (Trump) to perform official acts. Just hinting that the aid could be held up — and conditioning a White House meeting on announcement of the desired bogus investigations for personal political purpose — is abuse of the power granted to the president under the Constitution and therefore unlawful in the highest sense.
In normal times, the courts can be asked to adjudicate on the specifics when subpoenas for witnesses or documents are contested. But the Trump administration declared that the entire impeachment investigation was invalid. This assertion itself flies directly in the face of the Constitution, which gives the sole power of impeachment to the House of Representatives. It is not up to the executive branch to decide what is or is not a valid impeachment process. Nor is that a proper question for the judicial branch. Trump’s action is flatly unconstitutional — and therefore unlawful and impeachable — no question about it.
— Rick Wicks
Anchorage
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