Former Trump Adviser: Trump’s Ukraine Scandal is ‘A Lot Worse’ Than Nixon
George Mason University Law professor J.W. Verret, a former Trump advisor, said President Donald Trump’s Ukraine controversy is “a lot worse” than President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal.
While Verret briefly advised Trump in the pre-transition stages of his presidency, he has since taken to publicly opposing the president; notably, the law professor recently argued in favor of impeachment while citing issues outlined in the Mueller report.
During a Monday appearance on CNN, Verret discussed his new concerns related to Trump pushing Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky into investigating leading 2020 Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden.
“I felt there was enough there to begin impeachment proceedings, in fact, to call for a vote of impeachment contained in the Mueller report,” Verret explained. “But this is much worse.”
“People have made the analogy to the Nixon era scandals and Nixon’s resignation, but this is a lot worse than that,” he continued. “Nixon was a patriot. Of all the crazy things he did, he never would have accepted help from a foreign power for his own personal interest in an election, particularly one that would compromise the U.S. strategic interests. This is much worse and I think momentum continues toward impeachment.”
Prior to Nixon’s resignation in 1974, the Democratically-controlled House commenced an impeachment inquiry over illegal measures the Republican president took to spy on the Democratic National Committee, his weaponization of the CIA, FBI, and IRS against domestic political opponents, and his subsequent attempts to cover up the crimes. Trump, on the other hand, has been accused by a whistleblower in his own government of pressuring a foreign government — which receives financial aid from the U.S. — into targeting a top Democrat who could end up running against him in 2020 and subsequently attempting to conceal records of his July 25 phone call with Zelensky.
Verret went on to tell CNN that there is enough evidence to begin “proceedings into election-based fraud and even to bring in Mr. Giuliani as a facilitator of accepting foreign help in an election, which is a felony.”
“There was potentially a cover-up — but a bumbling cover-up, that was quickly revealed by a courageous whistleblower. So we’re in a very position to move quickly, I think. I’m glad the house is moving on impeachment. I think it’s unfortunate that Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi took this long. I think she frankly empowered Trump to do this second major violation.”
As for the Democrats’ decision to focus the impeachment inquiry on the Ukraine scandal, rather than tying in the Mueller report, Verret suggested Congress should look at it with a “larger scope because they’re interrelated.”
“They’re both instances of a president blatantly seeking foreign support to help in his own election. In fact, it’s the same playbook. He got away with it. He immediately pulled the same playbook off the shelf,” he added.
In August, Verret described the Mueller report as a “tipping point” and ripped Republican lawmakers for their “blind devotion [to Trump] that serves to enable criminal conduct.”
“Finished a second read through the Mueller Report. I don’t say this lightly, as a lifelong Republican, former Hill staffer, and someone who has worked on every campaign and pre-transition team for the last ten years. There is enough here to begin impeachment proceedings,” wrote Verret.
That does not suggest what the outcome of such a proceeding will be, impeachment is only the beginning of an inquiry. Analogous to a grand jury investigation. But it’s time, it really is.
— J.W. Verret (@JWVerret) April 20, 2019
Watch the clip above, via CNN.
