Kent County Today

A GOP official said the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump's communication with Ukraine lacks "adherence to the law" in a commentary published recently in the Delaware State News.

The author, a former prosecutor and judge, said the inquiry is lacking in facts.

The author wrote that the United States and Ukraine in 1999 signed an agreement to cooperate to fight corruption. While there is reason to believe that Ukraine actually interfered in the 2016 election, at the behest of a Hillary Clinton supporter who was contracted by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the author alleged, recently elected president Volodymyr Zelensky campaigned on a pledge to fight corruption.

As both Republicans and Democrats have sought to prevent any possible U.S. election tampering, “the United States is conducting an investigation into the role of foreign countries in the counterintelligence investigation targeting the Trump campaign. Attorney General William Barr has named United States Attorney John Durham to lead that investigation.”

The author describes a July 25, 2019, phone call between Trump and Zelensky, noting that after Zelensky states Ukraine is close to ordering military equipment from the U.S., “Trump asked a favor of Ukraine – that they assist Attorney General Barr with the investigation.”

At a later point in the conversation, the author stated, “Trump also asked that Ukraine look into the termination of an investigation into Burisma, a company on which Board of Directors then-Vice President Biden’s son, Hunter, served. Trump noted that then-Vice President Biden had bragged that he ’stopped the prosecution.’”

The resulting whistleblower complaint contains statements that Trump “’sought to pressure the Ukrainian leader to take acts to help the President’s 2020 reelection bid.’ The transcript of the call, which has been released in its entirety, reflects no pressure at all,” according to the author.

The Democrats contend there was “quid pro quo,” in the conversation – something in exchange for something – “that the president demanded action by Ukraine with regard to investigating the Bidens before he would release military aid to the country. In fact, no such statements were made,” the author states.

However, “the aid had been delayed due to concerns about how the new administration would handle corruption within their own country,” the author adds.

The author concludes, “Impeachment has been a word in many Democrats’ vocabulary since the election of President Trump in 2016. It is unwarranted and unsupported by the facts, but don’t take my word for it. Thanks to the unprecedented transparency by the president, who declassified and released the transcript of the call and the complaint, you can see for yourself that there was no pressure, no demands, no impeachable conduct.”