Another helpful column from the Lawfare Blog: “The Volker Texts: What Quid Pro Quo Looks Like.”

The column walks through the text messages that were made public on Friday following the closed-door Congressional testimony by former Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker. These text messages are apparently only part of the materials provided to the committees involved in the impeachment inquiry.

But after working through the timeline of the messages and other known events, the authors provide this summary of the pending issue yet to be confronted.

This is all useful and valuable work, but it does not drastically change the core question before Congress: Whether using the office of the presidency of the United States to pressure the head of a foreign government to investigate a domestic political opponent ahead of an election is, or is not, gross misconduct—misconduct that clearly corrupts the political and governmental process by threatening the independence of U.S. elections.

In their cover letter to committee members, Chairmen Eliot Engel, Adam Schiff and Elijah Cummings indicate that they are making these texts public because, “The President and his aides are engaging in a campaign of misinformation and misdirection in an attempt to normalize the act of soliciting foreign powers to interfere in our elections.” They also argue that Trump’s comments that same day—in which the president publicly invited both Ukraine and China to investigate the Bidens—are “unethical, unpatriotic, and wrong.” And they close with this:

Our investigation will continue in the coming days. But we hope every Member of the House will join us in condemning in the strongest terms the President’s now open defiance of our core values as American citizens to guard against foreign interference in our democratic process.

It seems to me that the investigation has to keep digging in to the facts of what has transpired, so that there is no ambiguity remaining and we are collectively forced to address that core question–“Whether using the office of the presidency of the United States to pressure the head of a foreign government to investigate a domestic political opponent ahead of an election is, or is not, gross misconduct—misconduct that clearly corrupts the political and governmental process by threatening the independence of U.S. elections.”

See:

“Three Chairs Provide Update on Investigative Work, Volker Testimony & Text Messages“, October 3, 2019, U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

“Trump’s former Ukraine envoy reveals damaging texts,” October 3, 2019, Politico.

“Texts From Top Diplomat Described ‘Crazy’ Plan to Keep Aid From Ukraine,” October 3, 2019, NY Times.

“Kurt Volker, Ukraine and a Turbulent End in the Trump Administration,” October 5, 2019, NY Times.

“Multiple whistleblowers” emerge in Trump-Ukraine case, lawyers say, October 6, 2019, CBS News.