BREAKING NEWS: Nancy Pelosi accuses Donald Trump of BRIBERY for holding back Ukraine’s military aid in dramatic escalation of Democrats’ impeachment attack and says public testimony ‘makes what Nixon did look almost small’
- Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Trump of ‘bribery,’ an impeachable offense
- Her charge dramatically escalated the stakes in the impeachment battle as the inquiry moved into the public stage
- She said his threat to with hold U.S. aid to the Ukraine was a bribe
- ‘It’s perfectly wrong. It’s bribery,’ she said
Nancy Pelosi on Thursday accused Donald Trump of ‘bribery,’ a charge, she notes, that is in the U.S. Constitution as an impeachable offense.
The speaker’s charge dramatically escalated the stakes in the impeachment battle as the inquiry moved into the public stage.
Pelosi said the transcript of Trump’s own call with his Ukrainian counterpart along with the ‘devastating testimony’ of top U.S. diplomat in the Ukraine Bill Taylor and deputy assistant secretary of state George Kent confirmed the bribery charge.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Donald Trump of ‘bribery,’ an impeachable offense
Pelosi’s bribery charge against Trump dramatically raises the stakes in the impeachment inquiry
‘The devastating testimony corroborated evidence of bribery uncovered in the inquiry and that the president abused power and violated his oath,’ she told reporters during a press conference on Capitol Hill.
She then pointed out that bribery is in impeachable offense in the U.S. Constitution.
‘It’s in the constitution. You know, talking Latin around here, from anyone. Quid pro quo. Bribery. Bribery. And that is in the constitution attached to the impeachment proceedings,’ she added.
The Constitution – in Article II Section 4 – says the president can be removed ‘from office on impeachment for, and conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.’
The speaker said the bribe was the nearly $400 million in military assistance the administration with held on the allegation President Trump wanted a statement from the Ukraine that it would investigate the Bidens and unproven charges about the 2016 election.
‘The bribe is to grant or withhold military assistance in return for a public statement of a fake investigation into the elections. That’s bribery,’ Pelosi said.
White House officials have pointed out that the Ukraine did receive the U.S. aid and there was no public statement from that country on investigating the 2016 election.
But she wouldn’t say if House Democrats were ready to draft formal articles of impeachment against President Trump.
‘I don’t know that. We haven’t even made a decision to impeach. That’s what the inquiry is about. And when the committees decide that, and they will decide what the articles are.’
She also argued Trump has already admitted to guilt and pointed to his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
‘I am saying that what the President has admitted to and says “its’s perfect” – I said it’s perfectly wrong. It’s bribery,’ Pelosi said.
‘What President Trump has done on the record in terms of acting to advantage his foreign power to help him in his own election and the obstruction of information about that, the cover up, makes what Nixon did look almost small,’ she noted.