phyllo wrote:Now ask why.
Ask why you think that what he did is okay.
Understanding your predicament, I'll take that to be the request for explanation and proceed.
The accusation is that the President did something for a specific reason. The accusation is a concern, not so much what was done, but rather
why it was done. So it cannot be denied that
motive is relevant to the charge. And because leveraging a foreign government is not only not illegal in the US, it is in fact what every government does to every other constantly, motive is the only relevant concern. Every US President has always leveraged favors along with every other national leader throughout history. Other nations are NOT US citizens entitled to US citizen laws and privileges.
So even though it can be argued whether there really was any force applied (both participants claim that there was none), the idea of leveraging a national favor is simply the way nations trade with each other and certainly not criminal.
Back to the actual issue, the accusation that Mr Trump asked for another nation to "dig up dirt on a political rival" as a personal favor rather than a national concern.
First he did not ask to "dig up dirt". He asked merely to investigate. Read the transcript. Adam Shiff made up, lied about, Mr Trump's phone conversation saying, "I want you to dig up dirt on Biden and plenty of it". So if that is your source for the phrase "dig up dirt", read the transcript.
But gain the issue is about
why Mr Trump asked for the investigation. The presumption and biased, knee-jerk declaration is that
he asked for it ONLY as a personal political favor.
Do you believe that it is at all possible that Mr Trump had other viable national reasons to ask for the investigation even if he also wanted the possible political advantage?