Trump had 'legal duty' to pursue Biden probe

President Trump had a legal obligation to address the allegations of corruption against Joe Biden and his son, meaning his discussion of the matter with the Ukrainian president was justified, contends Gregg Jarrett, a legal analyst for Fox News.

“The president is duty-bound under the take-care clause of the Constitution, if he knows of a potentially corrupt act by a vice president trying to extort a foreign country to shut down a probe that involves his son,” Jarrett told Sean Hannity Tuesday night.

“That’s bribery, that’s honest-services fraud, and the president is duty-bound to ask that country, ‘Investigate, produce the evidence, give it to us,'” he said.

Jarrett was referring to Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution, which imposes a duty on the president to take due care while executing laws.

“If he doesn’t do it,” Jarrett emphasized, “it is a dereliction of his constitutional duty.”

Jarrett said the media is “focusing on what the president of the United States didn’t do and ignoring what Joe Biden admits on camera doing.”

Former independent counsel Ken Starr agreed.

“I think Gregg is making a terrific point. I have not heard it all day,” he said.

Trump is being accused of threatening to withhold aid to Ukraine if its government didn’t investigate the business dealings of Hunter Biden, but that’s what Joe Biden himself did.

Hunter Biden made $50,000 a month as a board member of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings while having no experience in the field. His father, the current frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, admitted in a 2018 talk to the Council on Foreign Relations that he threatened to withhold more than $1 billion in loan guarantees if Ukraine didn’t fire the prosecutor who happened to be investigating his son.

Starr said that Tuesday was not “a great day for the Constitution — let’s leave the politics aside.”

Referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement of an “impeachment inquiry,” Starr said “nothing happened today other than a political show.”

An impeachment inquiry must be authorized by a full vote of the House, he pointed out.

“The president’s take-care duties are so important, especially in the area of foreign relations,” he emphasized.

“The president’s conduct of foreign relations involves relationships and his ability to speak freely.”

With attention focused on the release of the transcript of President Trump’s July phone call, the Justice Department’s criminal division said Wednesday it already has investigated the matter and concluded Trump did not violate campaign finance laws.

The transcript of the conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showed Trump talked about Biden but did not threaten to withhold military aid as Democrats charge.

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