After two weeks of compelling testimony in the House impeachment inquiry, it’s worth weighing what has emerged. Four conclusions stand out.

First, there is now overwhelming testimony and evidence that affirm the deeply troubling revelation contained in President Trump’s summary of his “perfect” July 25 phone call with the newly elected president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. Mr. Trump withheld an important Oval Office meeting and nearly $400 million in urgently needed military assistance from Ukraine to compel Mr. Zelensky to open, or at least announce, two investigations — one that would seek to exonerate Russia and dishonestly implicate Ukraine in interference in the 2016 election, and another that aimed to tar former Vice President Joe Biden with false corruption charges in relation to his work on Ukraine during the Obama administration.

Both of the long-sought investigations were based on manufactured and discredited allegations, and both served only one purpose: to advantage Mr. Trump politically. It is clear that Mr. Trump abused his power to extort bogus dirt on his chief rival for personal political gain.

Some allies of the president have insisted that this is no big deal because the United States routinely leverages White House meetings and assistance to obtain concessions from foreign governments. Yet they fail to acknowledge that such leverage is properly used only to advance American policy objectives — not to service the personal interests of any individual, including the president. Thus, when Vice President Biden threatened to hold back economic assistance unless a corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor was removed, he was acting in support of bipartisan American, European and International Monetary Fund policy to curb official corruption in Ukraine. Mr. Biden did it openly, transparently and not, as Mr. Trump has falsely claimed, to protect his son Hunter.