Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz Ask Schiff: What If Obama Wanted Romney’s Son Investigated for Working for Corrupt Russian Company?

As senators posed questions in the impeachment trial today, Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz asked a follow-up to Adam Schiff’s hypothetical about Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in 2012.

Graham and Cruz asked, “In Mr. Schiff’s hypothetical, if President Obama had evidence that Mitt Romney’s son was being paid $1 million per year by a corrupt Russian company and Mitt Romney had acted to benefit that company, would Obama have authority to ask that that potential corruption be investigated?”

Schiff responded and said, “The hypothetical is a bit off because it presumes that in that hypothetical that President Obama was acting corruptly or there was evidence he was acting corruptly with respect to his son.”

“Would it have been impeachable if Barack Obama had tried to get Medvedev to do an investigation of Mitt Romney, whether it was justified or unjustified? The reality is for a president to withhold military aid from an ally or in the hypothetical to withhold it to benefit an adversary, to target their political opponent, is wrong and corrupt, period. End of story,” Schiff argued.

He said if there’s a legitimate reason to look at such offenses, “there are legitimate ways” to investigate such matters.

“Under no circumstances do you go outside of your own legitimate law enforcement process to ask a foreign power to investigate your rival, whether you think there’s cause or you don’t think there’s cause, and you certainly don’t invite that foreign power to try to influence an election to your benefit,” Schiff added.

You can watch above, via CNN.