Last night, in nothing other than a tweet, President Trump again abused the power of his office and broke the law in order to enrich his friends and family. Unfortunately for President Trump, such actions, like the “use of public office for private gain,” either for oneself, a friend, or relative, is illegal. Whether the president is aware of that or not is unclear.
The phrase, quid pro quo, directly translates from Latin as “something for something.” In modern English this Latin phrase is used to mean an exchange of goods or services, in which one transfer is contingent upon the other. Ever since the story first broke regarding President Trump’s scandalous phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump has vehemently denied that there was any sort of quid pro quo. However, the Trump Administration’s acting Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, admitted in a press conference last Thursday, October 17, 2019, that President Trump withheld aid from Ukraine as part of a quid pro quo.
From relatively small crimes such as copyright or intellectual property law infringement to large crimes such as violating the United States Constitution, Trump has done them both. In October of last year, the Prince Estate requested that the Trump Campaign “cease all use” of Prince’s songs after Trump used them on pre-Election Day rallies. On October 15, 2018 The Prince Estate received a response from Trump’s Campaign that noted they would not play any of Prince’s music in connections with its activities going forward.
On October 11, 2019 a federal appeals court rejected Trump’s appeal of the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena for his financial records. Although this is a win for Americans who value transparency in government, I fear that this is an issue that will not be resolved with this decision. We have to remember that throughout the end of President Obama’s second term in office, Republicans vehemently stone-walled even the idea of Obama nominating a new Supreme Court Justice to fill the place of the late Justice Scalia.
The Political Historian 