couldn t be checked, who could not be supervised by his own justice department and who could not be supervised by congress and could not be impeached would effectively be above the law and would use his power to get himself reelected that s why the created the impeachment remedy. thank you, professor feldman. i want to discuss how the framers concerns about abuse of power relayed to president trump s misconduct. on july 25, president trump said to president zelensky i would like you to do us a favor, though. professor feldman, one president trump made use of the words favor, though, do you believe the president was benignly asking for a favor? how is the answer to that question relevant to whether the president abused his power? stick to it is relevant, sir, because there s nothing wrong with someone asking for a favorn the interest of the united stat. the problem is for the president to use his office to solicit or
in military aid and faster bill taylor, west point graduate, vietnam war hero, republican appointed diplomat discussed the issue of military aid. here s a clip clip of his testimony. again, our holding up security assistance that will go to a country that is fighting aggression from russia for no good policy reason, no good substantive reason, no good national security reason, is wrong. to the extent that the military aid was being withheld as part of an effort to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election, is that behavior impeachable? yes, it is and if i could go back to one of the words you read. when the president said do us a favor, he was using the royal we. it wasn t a favor for the united states. he should ve said do me a favor because only kings say us when
professors, you have testified that the presidents conduct implicates three categories. abuse of power, betrayal of national interest and corruption of elections. is that right, professor karlan? yes, it is. professor feldman and professor get hurt, do you agree? yes. you stated the president s decision to sacrifice the national interest for his own ends. do you agree with that? yes, sir. based on the evidence you have seen, professors, has president trump sacrificed the country s interests in favor of his own? yes, he has. is there a particular piece of evidence that most illuminates that? what illuminates it most for me is the statement by ambassador sondland that he wanted simply the announcement of an investigation. several other people s had the same thing.
applying tremendous pressure, the pressure of the power of the united states. that relates to the constitutional abuse of office. if someone other than the president of the united states asked the president you can to do a favor, the president of the ukraine to say no. the president of the united states uses the office of the presidency to ask for a favor, there simply no way for the president ukraine to refuse. thank you. we ve also heard testimony that the president withheld a white house meeting and military aid in order to further pressure further pressure or ukraine to announce investigations and vice president biden and the 2016 election. professor karlan, is that why you re testimony concluded that the president abused his power? i thought the president abused his power by asking for a criminal investigation of the united states citizen for political ends regardless of everything else. that s just it s not icing on the cake. it s what you would call an aggravating circumst
demand a favor for his personal benefit. the evidence strongly suggests that given the power of the president and given the incentives the president created for ukraine to complied with his request the present was seeking to serve his own personal benefit and own personal interests. that is definition of corruption under the constitution. other witnesses have testified it was their impression when president trump said i would like you to do us a favor, though, that he was actually making a demand not request. professor feldman, how does lieutenant colonel vindman s testimony saying that the president statement was a demand because of the power disparity between the two countries relate back to our framers concerns about the president s abuse of power. lieutenant colonel vindman s observation states very clearly that you have to understand the president of the united states has so much more power than the president of ukraine that when the president uses the word favor, the reality