Rep. Adam Schiff: Trump's Potentially Impeachable Offenses Include Bribery

Source: NPR

With the House set to begin public impeachment inquiry hearings against President Trump on Wednesday, the man tasked with leading the Democrats' investigation says he already sees several potential impeachable offenses Trump has committed, including bribery.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep during an interview at the Capitol on Tuesday that he thinks there's a clear argument to be made that Trump committed "bribery" and "high crimes and misdemeanors" — both explicitly outlined in the Constitution as impeachable offenses — when pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son in exchange for long-promised military aid.

"Bribery, first of all, as the founders understood bribery, it was not as we understand it in law today. It was much broader," Schiff said. "It connoted the breach of the public trust in a way where you're offering official acts for some personal or political reason, not in the nation's interest."

To prove bribery, Schiff said, you have to show that the president was "soliciting something of value," which Schiff thinks multiple witnesses before his committee have testified to in private.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2019/11/12/778380499/rep-adam-schiff-trumps-potentially-impeachable-offenses-include-bribery