On Thursday, the House Intelligence Committee released an explosive whistleblower complaint from an intelligence official accusing President Donald Trump of "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 US election."

By pressuring Ukraine's government to investigate his political rivals — and possibly using taxpayer-funded military aid as leverage — Trump may have also violated federal laws.

"The conduct discussed in this complaint is so direct that it's striking," said Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor from the Southern District of New York who specialized in organized crime.

In all, former prosecutors told Insider, there are at least four areas where Trump could face legal jeopardy: violating federal campaign finance laws, bribery, misappropriation, and conspiracy.

On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally launched an impeachment inquiry into Trump over his conduct with Ukraine.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally launched an inquiry into impeaching President Donald Trump based on his conduct during a July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The phone call, and the actions of Trump and those around him before and after the conversation, are the subject of an explosive whistleblower complaint an intelligence official filed against Trump in August, which was released by the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday.

The complaint accused Trump of "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election" during the call.

Trump ordered his administration to withhold a nearly $400 million military-aid package to Ukraine days before the phone call.

While the White House's publicly-released notes of the call show the US president made no direct mention of offering aid in exchange for Zelensky's assistance in probing former Vice President Joe Biden, they confirm Trump brought up how the US does "a lot for Ukraine" right before asking Zelensky to do him a "favor" by investigating Biden and discrediting the former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.

Read more: 2 key facts refute Trump's conspiracy theories about the Ukraine scandal

The House of Representatives doesn't need to prove that a president committed a crime outlined in the federal code to pass articles of impeachment. They instead impeach based on whether the president committed "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors" as outlined in Article II, Section 4 of the US constitution.

But Justice Department veterans say that by pressuring Ukraine's government to investigate his political rivals — and possibly using taxpayer-funded military aid as a leverage tool — Trump may well have violated a number of federal laws.

"The conduct discussed in this complaint is so direct that it's striking," said Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor from the Southern District of New York who specialized in organized crime. "You have the President of the United States in direct communication — some might say collusion — with the president of Ukraine."

In all, former prosecutors told Insider, there are at least four areas where Trump could face legal jeopardy.

Illegally soliciting campaign help from a foreign government

The most obvious way in which Trump could have violated the law is by soliciting material campaign aid from a foreign government, which expressly violates the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971.

Trump's conduct with Ukraine isn't the first time he's been accused of violating campaign finance laws to help him win an election. He was named as an unindicted co-conspirator, listed as Individual-1 in court documents, in the case against his former personal attorney Michael Cohen.

In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight federal charges in the Southern District of New York including charges of tax fraud, bank fraud, and violating federal campaign finance law by making a contribution to the Trump campaign in the form of a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels — far over the legal campaign contribution limit of $2,7000 — to buy her silence on an alleged affair she had with Trump.

Read more: Acting DNI Joseph Maguire undermined the GOP's entire argument against the whistleblower in one sentence

Bribery

The second area of potential legal liability for Trump relates to his request that Zelensky do him a "favor" right after mentioning how the US "does a lot for Ukraine," and more importantly, after Zelensky raised the issue of US military aid right before Trump requested he investigate Biden.

Read more: The notes on Trump's call with Ukraine's president hint at a quid pro quo over investigating Joe Biden's son

"From a criminal law point of view, that looks like a quid pro quo," said Patrick Cotter, a longtime former federal prosecutor who was part of the team that convicted the Gambino crime family boss John Gotti.

"And under federal law, that could open Trump up to allegations that he committed the crime of bribery by offering one thing in exchange for another, and doing so for his own personal benefit and not the country's."

Misappropriation

Third, Cotter said, if Trump "in fact used government funds for his own gain, then there is a very strong argument that there is a theft of taxpayer money, or misappropriation, taking place."

Cotter added that it's possible Trump "misappropriated $400 million in taxpayer money, and instead of using it for government purposes, he stole it to potentially pay a bribe. People go to jail every day in this country for doing that, and it looks like that's what Trump tried to do."

Read more: 'Lawyer up': DOJ veterans have 1 piece of advice for Trump and Giuliani amid the Ukraine whistleblower scandal

Conspiracy

Last, if Giuliani, Barr, and other officials were involved in Trump's efforts, as the complaint alleges, that would raise questions about a potential criminal conspiracy.

"That would include anybody who was part of these transactions," Cotter said. "The key legal concept behind a conspiracy is that everybody in the conspiracy is responsible for everybody else's actions."

Giuliani is mentioned 31 times in the whistleblower's complaint, and the document described him as a "central figure" in Trump's effort. It said Attorney General William Barr "appears to be involved as well."

The complaint added that Trump referred "explicitly" to Giuliani and Barr as "his personal envoys on these matters" while speaking to Zelensky.

Giuliani's involvement in the Ukraine scandal also undercuts the central premise of the president's defense: that his conversation with Zelensky related strictly to government business and to Trump's interest in rooting out corruption in Ukraine.

The complaint paints an intricate portrait of "the fact that Giuliani was driving a lot of this and doing the legwork for Trump" in Ukraine, Honig said. "But why would a private citizen — not an employee of the United States — be involved in this unless he was working for the personal, political benefit of his client, Donald Trump?"