That question was the same question the American media had been asking for years. For example, on June 20, 2019, ABC News scrutinized Hunter Biden's involvement on the Burisma board of directors on a nationally televised news report.[1] The reporter asked whether "Hunter Biden profit[ed] off his Dad's work as vice-president, and did Joe Biden allow it?"[2] Numerous other publications have asked the same questions, including the Wall Street Journal as far back as 2015.[3] Former Vice President Biden himself, in a widely circulated video, explained his role in leveraging foreign aid to get a Ukrainian prosecutor who had investigated Burisma fired during a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations.[4] As the New York Times reported earlier this year, "Among those who had a stake in the outcome was Hunter Biden, Mr. Biden's younger son, who at the time was on the board of an energy company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch who had been in the sights of the fired prosecutor general."[5] Certainly, the questions surrounding the Bidens' role in Ukraine have been topics of interest for the media for a long time.
There is nothing untoward about a president asking a foreign government to investigate the same questions about potential corruption the American media was asking publicly. In fact, the United States has been party to a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) with Ukraine since 2001.[6] The purpose of that MLAT includes "mutual assistance...in connection with the investigation, prosecution, and prevention of offenses, and in proceedings related to criminal matters."[7]
Furthermore, being a political campaign participant does not immunize anyone from scrutiny. The President did not ask for the creation of any false information. When Lt. Col. Vindman was asked "Would it ever be U.S. policy, in your experience, to ask a foreign leader to open a political investigation?" he replied, "...Certainly the President is well within his right to do that."[8]
V.Article II Fails to Establish an Impeachable Offense
The second Article of Impeachment, "Obstruction of Congress," appears to be a simple invective by the Majority against the constitutional reality of separation of powers.[9] The
- ↑ Biden sidesteps questions about son's foreign work, {S{mallcaps|ABC News}} (June 20, 2019).
- ↑ Id.
- ↑ Paul Sonne & Laura Mills, Ukrainians See Conflict in Biden's Anticorruption Message, Wall Street Journal (Dec. 7, 2015) (Quoting Ukrainian corruption expert stating: "If an investigator sees the son of the vice president of the United States is part of the management of a company ... that investigator wili be uncomfortable pushing the case forward."); see also James Risen, Joe Biden, His Son and the Case Against a Ukrainian Oligarch, NY Times (Dec. 8, 2015); Kenneth Vogel & luliia Mendel, Biden Faces Conflict of Interest Questions that are being Promoted by Trump and Allies, NY Times (May 1, 2019).
- ↑ Council on Foreign Relations, Foreign Affairs Issue Launch with Former Vice President Joe Biden (Jan. 23, 2018).
- ↑ Kenneth Vogel & luliia Mendel, Biden Faces Conflict of Interest Questions that are being promoted by Trump and Allies, NY Times (May 1, 2019).
- ↑ See Department of State, "Ukraine (12978) - Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters".
- ↑ Įd. at art. I cl. 1.
- ↑ The Impeachment Inquiry into President Donald J. Trump: Testimony of Ms. Jennifer Williams & Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, Hearing Before the H. Perm. Sel. Comm. on Intelligence, 116th Cong. 120 (2019).
- ↑ See Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, baron de, 1689-1755. The Spirit of the Laws. The Colonial Press, 1899 (New York). ("But should the legislative power usurp a share of the executive, the latter would be equally undone...Here, then, is the fundamental constitution of the government we are treating of. The legislative body being composed of two parts, they check one another by the mutual privilege of rejecting. They are both restrained by the executive power, as the executive is by the legislative.").
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