Trump attorney: Ukraine treaty allows exchange of crime evidence

President Trump (Pixabay)

Democrats are running at open throttle to impeach President Trump for his telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

They allege a quid pro quo in his request that the Ukrainian leader "look into" Hunter Biden's receipt of millions of dollars from a corrupt Ukrainian company while his father was the Obama administration's point man for the country.

Trump released a transcript of the call that undermines the claim and the Justice Department ruled he broke no laws, but that has not slowed the impeachment drive.

Something else might, however.

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A treaty between the United States and Ukraine authorizes the president to seek "mutual assistance" regarding "taking of testimony or statements of person; providing documents, records, and articles of evidence; serving documents; location or identifying persons; transferring persons in custody for testimony or other purposes."

The Treaty With Ukraine on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters was spotlighted by Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice, who also serves as a personal lawyer to President Trump.

In the phone call, Trump briefly discussed the Bidens because of Hunter Biden's acceptance of $50,000 a month from a Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma Holdings, despite having no experience in the industry.  Joe Biden is on record boasting that he got the prosecutor investigating Burisma fired by threatening to withhold $1 billion in aid.

Sekulow wrote on the ACLJ website that despite "the hysteria of the Left and the mainstream media surrounding the whistle blower complaint (hearsay that was completely undercut when President Trump, out of abundance of transparency, released the actual transcript of his phone call with President Zelensky of Ukraine), it is clear beyond question that President Trump, in asking for Ukrainian assistance, acted consistently with the four corners of the Treaty with Ukraine on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters."

The treaty ratified by the Senate in 2000 and signed by President Clinton.

Sekulow noted it "specifically acknowledges that it does not prevent the two nations from granting assistance to each other through other applicable international agreements or provisions of respective national law."

And it says "the Contracting States may also provide assistance pursuant to any bilateral arrangement, agreement, or practice which may be applicable.'"

Further, the treaty "does not describe and does not purport to describe the limits of a president's constitutional authority."

"It neither constrains or diminishes a president's Article II authority to enforce the laws of the United States, nor could it. It is merely a tool available to a U.S. president to facilitate mutual assistance and provides agreed upon procedures through which a particular request may be made and responded to," he explained.

Sekulow argues "impartial observers" say Trump's phone call with Zelensky "is consistent with his pursuit of evidence of criminal activity engaged in by U.S. actors that triggered the 2016 Russia collusion narrative or other possible criminal activity engaged in by U.S. actors."

He noted Attorney General William Barr has engaged with other nations "in order to determine whether illegal spying on the Trump campaign took place."

"At the end of the day this is precisely what the Deep State fears: that they will be exposed and held accountable. It is time for justice to roll like thunder. It is time to hold the Deep State accountable," he wrote.

He said "Deep State" actors "are trying to thwart President Trump's efforts to ferret out information on possible criminal activity involving U.S. actors in connection with the whole Russian collusion narrative that collapsed under the weight of special counsel Mueller's ponderous investigation."