Ukraine-gate:
By now, it is obvious to all but the most willfully blind that Trump made a quid pro quo offer to Zelenski during that July phone call for which Trump will soon be impeached: the quid (White House visit + military hardware + $$$); pro the quo (make public statement detrimental to my domestic political rival). But even if there was no quid involved, Trump would still be in violation of federal law even if he had only asked for that public statement.
Because just asking for foreign assistance in any election in the USA is verboten according to US Law:
U.S. Code §30121.
Contributions and donations by foreign national
(a) Prohibition
It shall be unlawful for:
(1) a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make—
(A) a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State, or local election;
(B) a contribution or donation to a committee of a political party; or
(C) an expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication (within the meaning of section 30104(f)(3) of this title); or
(2) a person to solicit, accept, or receive a contribution or donation described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (1) from a foreign national.
Subsection 2 of 52-USC-30121 implies that the 3 actions - "solict, accept, or receive" - are independent of each other and that violating any one of them would suffice to prove "unlawful".
So the ask for foreign assistance in any US election, in and of itself, "shall be unlawful" - regardless of how, or even if, the foreign actor responds. Actually, even if there is no Quid pro Quo.
Which means the ask, itself, is criminal.
So the ask is not just an impeachable offense, it's a jailable (individual-)one.
And I can think of no better accommodations for DOTUS Don than an SRO in Florence, CO - where I hear it's never nice anytime of the year…
This is also really bad news for Don Jr, JK and Manaford in regards to that June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians, having accepted the Russian offer of "dirt on Hillary" - "...especially later in the summer".
To me, the argument that having not received the "dirt on Hillary" exonerates the 3 Stooges is not supported by a literal reading of this statue. I guess we'll just have to wait for the next U.S.A.G. to weigh in on this as A.G. Barr has put his prodigious weight on the side of injustice.
Think this will fit on a bumper sticker?
It's Illict2Solicit —u can't even ASK!
Prob is, the willfully blind will refuse to see it. Also.