Nancy Pelosi accuses Donald Trump of bribery as impeachment probe intensifies
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US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that President Donald Trump already has admitted to bribery in the Ukraine scandal at the heart of a Democratic-led inquiry, accusing him of an impeachable offence under the US Constitution.
“The bribe is to grant or withhold military assistance in return for a public statement of a fake investigation into the elections. That’s bribery,” Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, told a news conference the day after the first public hearing in the impeachment inquiry she announced in September.
“What the president has admitted to and says it’s ‘perfect’, I say it’s perfectly wrong. It’s bribery,” Pelosi said.
The House is looking into whether Trump abused his power by withholding US$391 million in US security aid to Ukraine as leverage to pressure Kiev to conduct two investigations that would benefit him politically. The money, approved by Congress to help a US ally combat Russia-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country, was later provided to Ukraine.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
Another central figure – the former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch – is expected to testify on Friday in the inquiry’s second public hearing.