Trump Abused Office For Own Gain: Report

Impeachment inquiry concludes that he made efforts to ‘bend’ U.S. foreign policy to target rivals

- Sriram Lakshman

United States President Donald Trump used his office for personal political gain and obstructed a Congressional inquiry into his conduct, a 300-page scathing report released by House Democrats on Tuesday concluded.

“The evidence is clear that President Trump used the power of his office to pressure Ukraine into announcing investigations into his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and a debunked conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia that interfered in the 2016 election” the chairpersons of the three committees that conducted the impeachment inquiry said in a statement. “These investigations were designed to benefit his 2020 presidential re-election campaign.”

The report concludes that Mr. Trump scheduled a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and offered a military aid of $391 million to Ukraine conditional on Ukraine announcing the investigations.

Importantly, the investigation also concludes that the President made an “unprecedented effort” to obstruct the impeachment inquiry by instructing agencies and witnesses to ignore Congressional subpoenas.