Thursday, former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Andrew McCarthy discussed the charges of bribery against President Donald Trump that Democrats once called “quid pro quo” in regards to the president’s phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
McCarthy told Fox News Channel bribery is “not a straightforward crime,” and as a result could be difficult to prove under the law.
“The more you get to a kind of a hypertechnical violation of the law … the higher a prosecutor’s burden would be to show willfulness and intent and understanding and evidence along those lines,” McCarthy explained. “I think the problem that you have with bribery, in particular, which is what the Democrats’ current theory is, is that, you know, we all have kind of a common usage, understanding of what bribery is. And as I’ve maintained, I think the framers had a very specific understanding of the kind of bribery in the nature of treason that is the bribery they intended in the impeachment clause of the Constitution.
He continued, “But the bribery statute itself that the Democrats are relying on is not like one straightforward crime. It’s another one of these federal statutes that contains a whole bunch of different kinds of gradations of bribery from, you know, stuff that’s very obvious and straightforward to things that are a little bit more difficult to wrap your brain around and understand. … And with this transaction, we’re on that part of the scale.”
McCarthy went on to maintain Trump should get the benefit of a lack of proof of intent by Trump.
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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