Evan McMullin

Opinion contributor

One of the vital lessons I learned as an undercover CIA officer, and later as an adviser to Republicans in Congress, was how corrupt leaders escalate their abuses of power at the expense of their citizens’ freedom while trying to retain power. It motivated my service at the time and continues to drive my work to protect and improve American democracy now. It also informs my grave concern about recent reporting that President Donald Trump and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, pressured the government of Ukraine to help them dig up dirt on Trump’s primary political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

Despite Trump and Giulani’s cajoling and claims to the contrary, Ukrainian prosecutors are not investigating Biden and do not have evidence of wrongdoing.

Following in the footsteps of others

Some of the most extreme cases of such corrupt leaders are Syria’s Bashar Assad, Iran’s Ali Khamenei and North Korea's Kim family dynasty. In recent years, aspiring authoritarian leaders and movements have also risen to power closer to home in Hungary, Turkey and Poland.

Each is in a unique position on the spectrum of corruption, but they have many traits in common, including attacks on the independent news media, attempts to dismantle other power centers within their own governments, self-dealing and various efforts to weaken their people’s ability to vote them out of office.

A sober assessment of Trump’s presidency checks all of these boxes and easily places him among this latter group of rising Western strongmen. What appears to be an attempt to abuse the powers of his office to compel the Ukrainian government to help him politically by harming his main rival is alarming evidence that his corrupt efforts to hold onto power are escalating. That trend is unlikely to stop on its own.

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What such leaders have in common at the most basic level is their willingness to empower and enrich themselves at the direct expense of the people’s interests. A seemingly simple decision, it sets them on a slippery slope on which they increasingly abuse power, first to benefit personally from their positions, but quickly as a necessity for survival.

Each additional act of corruption leaves them more at risk of prosecution or public backlash and requires even greater abuses of power to counter, leaving them evermore vulnerable and perpetuating a more dangerous spiral of abuse. As they find ways to undermine checks on their power, they simultaneously become more powerful and more fragile, making escalating attacks on democracy both easier and more necessary.

The president won't be safe forever

Trump is, for now, immune to federal prosecution, according to a Department of Justice policy that sitting presidents cannot be indicted. More generally, he is shielded by the immense powers of his office, which give him broad sway over public opinion and authority over federal activities that he can leverage for tremendous influence and protection as long as he stays in power.

After he leaves office, he loses those protections. As affirmed by the Mueller report, “A president does not have immunity after he leaves office,” leaving Trump vulnerable then to potential prosecution for obstruction of justice and possibly other crimes committed before and during his presidency. These circumstances create the incentives in which corrupt leaders expand their abuses to hold onto power for as long as they can.

Trump feared that the special counsel investigation into 2016 Russian interference could end his presidency and he worked to obstruct it, dangling pardon offers, threatening and firing law enforcement officials, instructing staff to lie and refusing to be interviewed by investigators. More than 1,000 bipartisan former federal prosecutors have since said that these actions would have led to Trump’s indictment if not for his position.

Perhaps unsurprisingly due to Trump’s obstruction, the investigation fell short of establishing that members of his campaign met the legal threshold for conspiracy with the Russians. By the time Trump had sacked his original attorney general, Jeff Sessions, and replaced him with loyalist William Barr, Trump had firmly overcome related legal threats to his power.

He remained vulnerable at the time, however, to potential consequences imposed by Congress, including censure, impeachment and possible removal from office, but he quickly overcame those, too, framing for the public any congressional attempts to hold him accountable as partisan and personal.

House and Senate Republicans continued to prioritize party interests over those of the country, and most congressional Democrats continued to view the situation through a very traditional lens in which they could defeat Trump and expand their power in Washington through a free and fair 2020 election, despite the experience of 2016.

But Trump has a much less conventional view and approach to the situation. Having neutered the most important judicial and legislative limits on his power, the only remaining significant check is the American people acting through elections, but Trump has also learned that he can obtain undue electoral advantage through illegal foreign assistance and escape direct accountability to the people.

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Attempts to secure Ukrainian government cooperation against his primary political rival is foreign interference 2.0. He’s now trying to use the powers of the presidency to encourage and reward foreign election assistance, trading access, diplomatic support and even funding in return for illegal election assistance

Such corrupt leaders are unlikely to break their cycle of abuse themselves. It must be broken by other powers, whether they be the people, the media, the legislature, the courts or a combination. The longer the cycle continues, the riskier it is for individuals to oppose it, yet the more impactful their doing so can become.

The whistleblower who filed a complaint with Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson last month is an example. This person took great risk — possibly without proper access to the legal protections intended for such persons — in hopefully helping the American people understand the growing danger that the Trump presidency poses to the republic.

Nonetheless, countering this threat should not be left to the people alone. Congress has a constitutional duty and associated powers to hold Trump accountable before he repeats his foreign-assisted assault on our elections in 2020, something he is clearly trying to do.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress should perform their vital responsibility to uphold the Constitution without further delay, demonstrating Trump’s danger and the importance of their power, while setting the stage for political renewal in America. If they do not, they should expect Trump’s attacks on American democracy to further escalate — and they should bear responsibility for its consequences.

Evan McMullin is executive director of Stand Up Republic Foundation. He is a former CIA operations officer and independent presidential candidate. Follow him on Twitter: @EvanMcMullin