Legal analyst breaks down 3 separate potential violations in Trump's apparent Ukraine shakedown
20 September 2019
Legal analyst Ben Wittes on MSNBC Friday detailed three separate problems inherent in President Donald Trump's apparent attempts to use his position to induce the Ukrainian government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his family.
"There's three issues here, and they're all really big deals," Wittes said to host Chris Matthews on "Hardball."
"So the first is: shaking down a foreign leader for his own personal political gain," he continued. "It's not for some U.S. policy objective."
The second issue is something the whole country is already deeply familiar with: "inviting or asking or demanding that foreign country to improperly engage in the U.S. political process."
"Collusion!" Matthews declared. Wittes agreed.
"And the third," Wittes said, "which is, from my point of view, by far the worst, asking, demanding a foreign leader to investigate your political opponents."
Wittes noted that Trump has previously asked U.S. law enforcement to go after political rivals — and now he's taking that abuse abroad.
Watch the clip below: