House Republicans just released a 123-page report which they claim refutes the case for Donald Trump’s impeachment. In the report, Republicans argue that Donald Trump did not withhold military aid from Ukraine for his own self-interest, but because of “a deep-seated, genuine, and reasonable skepticism of Ukraine due to its history of pervasive corruption.” The report goes on to say, “The President’s initial hesitation to meet with President Zelensky or to provide U.S. taxpayer-funded security assistance to Ukraine without thoughtful review is entirely prudent.” I could literally go on for hours about this, but, as it’s my son’s 8th birthday, and I have ice cream-stuffed mochi to distribute, I’m going to keep this relatively brief. Here are just four simple things to consider.

1. There had already been a “thoughtful review”… The idea that these funds were going to be handed over to Ukraine “without thoughtful review” is absolute bullshit. Federal law requires that, before such funds are released, a detailed review be conducted, in order to ensure that the money in question would be used in the manner intended by Congress. In this instance, the person in charge of the review was Undersecretary of Defense for Policy John Rood, who, this past May, green-lit the release of the funds allotted by Congress. In a letter sent to four congressional committees at the time, Rood wrote that he had “certified that the Government of Ukraine has taken substantial actions to make defense institutional reforms for the purposes of decreasing corruption [and] increasing accountability.” Here’s an excerpt from his letter.

So, here’s the timeline… Rood conducted the review and gave word to release the funds passed by Congress in May, the Defense Department then announced in mid-June that the $250 million in security assistance would be sent to Ukraine, and the White House blocked said assistance in July… So, when people say that Trump was insisting upon a “thoughtful review,” it’s just not true. The thoughtful review had been done. And there’s no evidence that Donald Trump did anything more in the way of a review after halting the security aid. All he wanted from Ukraine, as we heard repeatedly during the impeachment inquiry in the House, was for President Zelensky to announce an investigation. [Trump did, of course, eventually release the aid, after his scheme was made public, but it had nothing to do with any additional review having been conducted.]

2. There is no evidence that Donald Trump cares about Ukranian corruption… Donald Trump, to put it bluntly, doesn’t give a fuck about Ukrainian corruption, contrary to what House Republicans maintain in this new report of theirs. Most notably, we know this from U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, a Trump appointee, who testified under oath before the House Intelligence Committee a few weeks ago that Donald Trump didn’t really want the Ukrainians to conduct a corruption investigation at all. According to Sondland, Trump just wanted Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to publicly announce that an investigation into the Bidens and CrowdStrike had been launched. To quote Sondland directly, “(Zelensky) had to announce the investigations, he didn’t have to actually do it, as I understand it.” So this was never about rooting out corruption. This was about creating doubt in the minds of American voters as to the character of Donald Trump’s chief Democratic adversary in the 2020 race.

3. If Donald Trump is such a champion for ethical government, why isn’t he fighting corruption anywhere else on the globe? On October 3, during his sworn testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, Kurt Volker, the former State Department special envoy to Ukraine, was asked if Donald Trump ever expressed “concerns about corruption in any other country besides Ukraine.” He said that the President had not. Likewise, Ambassador Sondland, was asked during his October 17 deposition whether he knew of “any aid being withheld to the other 28 countries in your portfolio under President Trump in 2018 or 2019.” He, like Volker, said that he did not. Simply put, there is no evidence that Donald Trump cares about corruption anywhere else on the planet. Given that, why would anyone believe that his true intention in withholding military aid from Ukraine had anything to do with a true, deep-seated and genuine desire to tackle corruption?

4. If Trump cares so much about Ukrainian corruption now, what about earlier in his administration, before Zelensky was elected, when corruption was actually much worse? OK, let’s assume for the sake of argument that all of this is true, and that Donald Trump really does care about corruption and the good people of Ukraine who suffer as a result of it. If that were the case, why wouldn’t Trump, the tireless champion of ethical governance that he is, have stepped in last year, or the year before that, to push for reform? Why wouldn’t he have demanded a “thoughtful review” during Ukraine’s last administration? Why did he instead wait for a reformer like Zelensky to be elected before withholding funding?

Ambassador Sondland, as you may recall, again under oath, told members of the House Intelligence Committee that he couldn’t recall a time prior to this that Donald Trump cared about Ukrainian corruption. The following comes by way of Slate.

…Sondland couldn’t recall any attempt by Trump to withhold aid from Ukraine last year, when the Kyiv government was plagued by corruption. By contrast, (acting Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor) testified that Volodymyr Zelensky, who took office as Ukraine’s president this year, “appointed reformist ministers,” opened an anti-corruption court, abolished lawmakers’ immunity to prosecution, and “supported long-stalled anti-corruption legislation.” On May 23, Sondland and other U.S. officials personally told Trump about Zelensky’s anti-corruption initiatives. An American president who cared about corruption would have been moved by this presentation. But Trump wasn’t. “He didn’t want to hear about it,” Sondland testified…

So, according to his own appointee, until there was something to be personally gained, Donald Trump didn’t care about corruption in Ukraine. And, even after he determined there was something to be gained, he didn’t actually care. He only wanted for Zelensky to publicly announce an investigation into the Bidens and CrowdStrike. He didn’t want an actual investigation. He just wanted to be able to point to a video clip of Zelensky on CNN, saying that prosecutors were looking into the activities of Joe Biden and the Democrats.

I could go on, but I think that should be enough for most reasonably intelligent American adults to accept the following statements of fact… First, there is no evidence that Donald Trump cares about corruption anywhere on the face of the planet. Second, Donald Trump, it is clear, is only pretending to care about corruption in this instance because he feels as though it may help him in the 2020 general election. And, third, in order to see this happen, Donald Trump withheld crucial security aid passed by Congress from a valued ally in order to coerce not an actual investigation, but an announcement of an investigation, into his primary domestic rival. And, yes, that’s more that sufficient grounds for impeachment.