Here's the quid pro quo proof, Lindsey Graham
SEN. LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, one of President Trump’s most ardent defenders in the Ukraine affair, has said he sees no evidence of wrongdoing in the president’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Mr. Trump pressed for investigations of former vice president Joe Biden and his son and the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee, while dangling a White House meeting that Mr. Zelensky wanted. But Mr. Graham did say the other day that “if you could show me that, you know, Trump was actually engaging in a quid pro quo, outside the phone call, that would be very disturbing.”
We think we can help the South Carolina Republican. Evidently he has not followed closely the depositions and documents collected by three House committees from present and former senior administration officials. If he had, he would see they contain clear proof that Mr. Trump, acting directly and through his lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, repeatedly demanded a pledge from Mr. Zelensky to open those political investigations to obtain an Oval Office invitation. There is evidence that U.S. military aid was dependent on the probes, as well.
The chain of evidence begins with the testimony of two State Department officials about a May 23 meeting they had with Mr. Trump to discuss the newly formed government of Mr. Zelensky. Kurt Volker, the administration’s special envoy to Ukraine, and Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, said that the president rejected their appeal to invite Mr. Zelensky to the White House. Instead, said Mr. Volker, Mr. Trump complained that Ukraine was a “corrupt country” that “tried to take me down.”
According to Mr. Sondland, he “directed those of us present . . . to talk to Mr. Giuliani . . . about his concerns.” Added the ambassador: “It was apparent to all of us that the key to changing the president’s mind on Ukraine was Mr. Giuliani.”
On July 19, Mr. Volker had breakfast with Mr. Giuliani. “He mentioned both the accusations about Vice President Biden and about interference in the 2016 election,” Mr. Volker told Congress, adding that Mr. Giuliani “stressed that all he wanted to see was for Ukraine to investigate what happened in the past.”
Mr. Volker then worked with a top aide to Mr. Zelensky, Andrey Yermak, to set up the July 25 phone call. The morning it took place, Mr. Volker texted Mr. Yermak to clearly lay out the quid pro quo: “Heard from White House-assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate/‘get to the bottom of what happened’ in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington. Good luck!” During the call, Mr. Trump requested investigations both of the DNC hack and of Mr. Biden; Mr. Zelensky promised to comply; and Mr. Trump seemed to offer a visit to Washington.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/heres-the-quid-pro-quo-proof-lindsey-graham/2019/10/22/549ef41a-f4e1-11e9-8cf0-4cc99f74d127_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions&wpmm=1
= new reply since forum marked as read
"quid pro quo" all the time. So do normal people on a regular basis. Virtually any form of negotiation or returning a favor is "Quid pro quo". Example;"I will cut your grass if you fix the flat on my bicycle". Plain and simple.
What Trump was doing is more like extortion.
ex·tor·tion
/ikˈstôrSH(ə
n/noun
the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats.
"he used bribery and extortion to build himself a huge, art-stuffed mansion"
In this case, he was refusing money for military support that was already promised to Ukraine to help fight the Russians, to get fabricated information on Biden and his son.
It is a mafia-like shakedown by a two bit hood.