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Former CIA and DOD Chief Of Staff Jeremy Bash outlined three felony crimes that Trump committed when he tried to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden.

Video:

Jeremy Bash lays out the three crimes that Trump committed in his phone call with Ukraine. #whistleblowergate pic.twitter.com/9ncnPqC2KJ — Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) September 20, 2019

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Bash said on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, “Assuming the reports are true, I see three crimes here. One is extortion by the president, using a threat of withholding aid to obtain something of value. The second crime is conspiracy to engage in extortion between the president and Rudy Giuliani. And third crime is conspiracy to violate election law, given there may be three underlying crimes, I think we’re beyond the issue of the whistleblower. The whistleblower issue was about surfacing this, bringing it to the attention of congress so congress could investigate. I think congress now will begin a thorough, comprehensive investigation. This isn’t going to turn to the courts, it turns on executive privilege. The United States supreme court ruled in U.S. Versus Richard Nixon that a president could not shield those infamous audiotapes if they were evidence of criminal activity by claiming executive privilege.”

The crimes that Trump committed are all impeachable offenses. More importantly, they could all be used in a criminal prosecution of him after he leaves office. Each of these crimes are felonies. Trump will do anything to keep the presidency. Bash is right. This isn’t a scandal that Trump can try to bury in the court system. The witnesses will be called to testify, and as long as Congress is investigating criminal activity by the president, Trump can’t hide behind executive privilege.

Nixon all tried executive privilege and national security claims and was shot down during Watergate.

The House would be wise to place a focus on Trump’s extortion of Ukraine. Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff will be leading the investigation, and he is set to bring all of Trump’s crimes to light just before the 2020 election.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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