The Washington Post - Opinions - Impeachment is now a slam dunk

Oct. 18, 2019 at 9:41 a.m. GMT+13

If one believes that clear and convincing evidence of impeachable acts and additional reminders of President Trump’s grotesque corruption are required to propel impeachment forward, then Thursday may be a significant turning point in the impeachment story.

 

We saw the confluence of three events. 

 

First, The Post reports, “At a combative session in the White House briefing room, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney acknowledged Thursday that the Trump administration held up U.S. military aid to Ukraine in part because of the president’s request for that country to investigate a Democratic National Committee server.” ...

 

Second, as if one confession were not enough, the ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, reportedly told the House impeachment panel “that President Trump outsourced the job of handling U.S. policy on Ukraine to Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani, a decision that made Sondland uncomfortable but one he still carried out.” ...

 

Third, in an unprecedented display of chutzpah*, Trump announced that next year’s Group of Seven summit would be held at his Doral golf resort near Miami, one of the clearest instances yet of self-enrichment and unconstitutional receipt of emoluments. ...

 

*  Chutzpah is the quality of audacity, for good or for bad. It derives from the Hebrew word ḥutspâ, meaning "insolence", "cheek" or "audacity".