President Donald Trump's Ukrainian actions are "clearly" impeachable, a former Bush 43 assistant attorney general said Friday, but he ripped Democrats for "playing politics" with their investigation.
"All the evidence hasn't come in yet, but it looks like that he was using his office and his control over foreign relations and foreign aid and his ability to entertain a foreign head of state to try to induce a foreign country to investigate his political opponent," Jack Goldsmith, who served in the Justice Department under George W. Bush, told Yahoo News' "Long Game" podcast.
"That's the way it looks right now," he added. "That's clearly an impeachable offense.
"Congress would have been justified in opening an impeachment inquiry much earlier," Goldsmith said.
However, the co-founder of the Lawfare blog, bashed Democrats, particularly House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for his "misleading" answers on whether he had any dealings with the whistleblower before the complaint was filed against Trump.
Goldsmith called Schiff's involvement "deeply unfortunate."
"When the president's opponents cut corners, don't tell the truth, seem like they're in league with bureaucrats to try to bring down the president, it just fosters . . . a very destructive narrative," he said.
On Sept. 17, Schiff told MSNBC that he nor his staff had "spoken directly with the whistleblower."
But reports disclosed that the person had spoken with Intelligence Committee staffers before filing the complaint on Aug. 12.
The complaint centered on Trump's July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and whether he suggested a probe into Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.