Only took a few hours for Buetler's take this morning to be proven right
The good news is that the Ukraine scandal is umbilically connected to many others. It revealed that Trump may have improperly classified transcripts of his calls with other corrupt world leaders to hide them from subordinates and investigators. The Russian government has even warned Trump not to release the transcripts of his calls with Vladimir Putin without permission. Trump has threatened the whistleblower who catalyzed the impeachment process, which means the Ukraine scandal now encompasses witness tampering—but once that avenue of inquiry has opened it makes no sense to close it to evidence that he tried to intimidate Michael Cohen out of testifying to the House oversight committee, and dangled pardons to Russia investigation witnesses who then withheld critical information from Special Counsel Robert Mueller. In attempting to appease Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured him that he'd paid his dues by staying at one of Trump's hotels. Democrats can either blind themselves to that part of the call summary, or treat Trump's violations of the Constitution's emoluments clauses as their own category of abuse that folds in his theft of federal dollars and his gangster-like shake downs of other governments.
It is within Democrats' power to expose the full depths of Trump's corruption and alert all future presidents that they can not conceal such behavior or expect to get away with it. But once they conclude their inquiry, that window will close, and unless Republicans decide to oust Trump from office, Democrats will cede to him the impunity he needs to continue those abuses, and use the federal government to seek retribution from his tormentors. All the way through at least November of next year.
