House Intelligence members say committee has evidence of a Trump-Ukraine 'extortion scheme'
- House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Eric Swalwell said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday that the impeachment inquiry has uncovered evidence of an "extortion scheme" involving President Donald Trump so far in the impeachment inquiry.
- Swalwell said that evidence is stacking up ahead of the impeachment inquiry moving into its phase of public testimony.
- Fellow committee member Rep. Jim Himes echoed Swalwell's point about corruption, saying that lawmakers around the impeachment inquiry need to move away from using the term "quid pro quo" to describe Trump's alleged behavior, and start using harsher language suggesting "corruption" and "abuse of power."
- Himes said the very language of the phrase can be confusing, when he thought it should be simple to communicate "that the president acted criminally and extorted in the way a mob boss would extort somebody."
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House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Eric Swalwell said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday that the impeachment inquiry has uncovered evidence of an "extortion scheme" involving President Donald Trump pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political opponents.
Swalwell told host Margaret Brennan that though "evidence is not a conclusion," witnesses in the impeachment probe so far had pointed to Trump's floating of the threat of withholding military aid to Ukraine as extortion, but the allegations would be weighed in front of lawmakers from both parties.
"It's important that the president has due process, and evidence is not a conclusion," Swalwell said. "We have enough evidence from the depositions that we've done to warrant bringing this forward, evidence of an extortion scheme, using taxpayer dollars to ask a foreign government to investigate the president's opponent."
Swalwell added that as the impeachment inquiry moves into its phase of public testimony, "it's important that these witnesses raise their right hands and take questions from both Republicans and Democrats, the president is going to get that."
Three witnesses, including open-session testimony from the top US diplomat to Ukraine Bill Taylor, State Department official George Kent, and former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
Moving away from calling 'quid pro quo'
Swalwell's pointing to extortion was echoed later Sunday morning by fellow committee member Rep. Jim Himes that lawmakers around the impeachment inquiry need to move away from using the term "quid pro quo" to describe Trump's alleged behavior, and start using harsher language suggesting "corruption" and "abuse of power."
"They've got to get off the 'quid pro quo' thing, because it's complicated, they've already attested to the fact that it occurred, and what we're dealing with here is corruption, abuse of power in a way that damaged American national security," Himes said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Himes said the very language of the phrase can be confusing, when he thought it should be simple to communicate "that the president acted criminally and extorted in the way a mob boss would extort somebody."
"Number one, when you're trying to persuade the American people of something that is really pretty simple, which is the that the president acted criminally and extorted in the way a mob boss would extort somebody, a vulnerable foreign country, it's probably best not to use Latin words to explain it," he told host Chuck Todd.
Himes also said extortion doesn't require a "you give me this and I give you that" deal, but "simply requires using your muscle to get something you don't have a right to."
House Republicans have echoed the White House's jabs that the impeachment inquiry launched by House Democrats last month has been "unfair," and sent a letter on November 9 with a list of witnesses they requested to deliver public testimony, including former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter and the whistleblower.
Republicans also called several officials who have already testified behind closed doors to deliver public testimony, including Tim Morrison, the administration's outgoing Russia expert, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council's top Ukraine specialist, and Kurt Volker, the former US special representative to Ukraine.
The testimonies have been touted as key pieces of information supporting the allegations that there was a quid pro quo surrounding Trump's dealings with Ukraine.