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Editor's Note: Dan Restrepo is a lawyer, Democratic strategist and political collaborator of CNN. He was presidential advisor and director for the Western Hemisphere of the National Security Council during the presidency of Barack Obama. The opinions expressed in this article are exclusive to the author.
(CNN Spanish) - The investigation into President Donald Trump that could lead to the third formal political trial against a head of state in the history of the United States came to light.
And with that, at least three issues with profound implications for the democracy of the republic also came into full view.
First, the testimonies of the business manager in Ukraine Bill Taylor and the deputy secretary of state for Europe, George Kent, made it very clear that the problematic events by the president go well beyond the July 25 telephone conversation between Trump and the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.
They were part of a series of events that began months before that conversation between the leaders and continued for several months later.
Taylor's testimony made it clear that at different times there was an “informal channel,” which carried a parallel policy to the traditional United States against an indirect war launched against Ukraine by Russia. And he told the new Ukrainian government that both a visit by Zelensky to the White House and military assistance to resist that war depended on the Ukrainian leader conducting investigations against Hunter Biden, son of former vice president Joe Biden.
Reduced to its essence, Taylor testified that the president of the United States tried to blackmail a foreign country to favor his own political interests.
That is a complete abuse of the powers of the presidency of the country.
And it confirms what was already quite obvious, given the content of the summary of the already famous call published by the White House in September.
In other words, the testimony of the first witness in the case, in itself, laid all the necessary grounds to prosecute President Trump for abuse of power.
A crime of that magnitude should not be difficult to convict. And it should be without consideration of political affiliation.
But the first hearing also made it clear that the Republican Party, or at least the version that exists in the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives, does not live up to the circumstances.
Instead of trying to defend the facts, the Republican leader in the House Intelligence Commission, Devin Nunes, and the Republican lawyer decided to try to divert the audience to conspiracy theories or things that have nothing to do with him. President Trump's behavior.
They did nothing to try to undermine Taylor's credibility.
Either they are completely incompetent or have no defense.
If they have no defense, open the doors to the great mystery of this process that will tell us a lot about the health of our democracy: Republicans in Congress, are they going to put the country above the party, or not?
Four groups of Republicans will have the opportunity to respond with their actions, not just their words, in the coming weeks and months.
Although what we have seen so far does not look good, Republicans in the Intelligence Commission will have the opportunity to prioritize our constitutional system.
Then, the responsibility will pass to the Republicans in the Justice Commission, where specific charges will almost certainly be considered to formally begin a political trial against President Trump. That vote will be another opportunity to define what is more important, whether political affiliation or the welfare of our democratic system.
Afterwards, all Republicans in the House of Representatives will have the same opportunity.
And assuming that a majority of the House confirms that there are reasons to advance a political trial, the responsibility will pass to the Republicans in the Senate.
And those Republicans will not only decide the political destiny of Donald Trump, but also solve the future of the Republican Party itself.
American democracy depends on having two strong parties that disagree on public policy issues but agree on the importance of our democracy. That they believe more in the country and the principles than in the trajectory of a single individual.
And that is why, since the investigation has come to light of day, much more than the future of Donald Trump is on the table.
There is the fate of the modern Republican Party.
There is the welfare of our democracy.
I hope some group of Republicans lives up to the circumstances.
United States House of Representatives Impeachment Political Judgment Republican Party Senate