Impeachment Questions

In December the House of Representatives passed articles of impeachment against President Trump but so far has delayed officially sending them to the Senate for trial. The House vote was strictly along party lines. The Democratic leadership in the House claims to have conducted a full and transparent investigation of the charges against the President, despite the fact that many of the hearings were held behind closed doors. 

 Nevertheless, I still have some questions that so far I have not seen answered. 

First, why it is a “high crime or misdemeanor” to ask the new President of Ukraine to give an accounting of what happened to a billion dollars of US aid that was given to Ukraine during the administration of President Obama? I would think it would be a dereliction of duty for the President not to ask for an investigation especially before releasing almost another half-billion of aid. Does anyone care what happened to the money?

The President of Ukraine has admitted that his country was rife with corruption under his predecessors.  We also know that former Vice-President Joe Biden openly admitted that he personally held back a billion-dollar aid package to Ukraine until its government bowed to his demands and fired a prosecutor investigating a Ukrainian energy company for corruption. 

We also know that Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, had been placed on the Board of Directors of that company at a salary of $600000 per year. Officials of the company have admitted that the younger Biden owed his position to his name only. He had no qualifications for the position, knew nothing about the business, and never even went to Ukraine. Was there a quid pro Joe?

This leads to another question. Why should Joe Biden or any politician be immune from investigation just because he is now running for office? Does merely running for office shield someone from investigation for something he might have done while in office? Why weren’t Vice- President Biden, his son and the administration of President Obama investigated in the first place? 

Traditionally impeachment has been reserved for crimes committed only while in office. Biden claims that he and his son did nothing wrong or illegal in Ukraine but the whole deal is certainly worthy of investigation. When the Republicans controlled the House, they would have had more grounds for impeaching Vice President Biden, than the Democrats have for impeaching President Trump today.

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