Dirt Digger for President
Steve Coll, "Reason to Impeach," The New Yorker, October 7, 2019.
"Many features of Trumpism -- the cynical populism, the brazen readiness to profit from high office, the racist and nativist taunts -- have antecedents in American politics. But Donald Trump's open willingness to ask foreign governments to dig up dirt on political opponents has been an idiosyneratic aspect of his rise to power."

"Two bombshell documents made public [late in September] -- a record of a phone conversation between Trump and Voldymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's President, and a whistle-blower's complaint about that call -- fully justify House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision, announced [early this month], to open an official impeachment inquiry. The documents describe a breach of Trump's constitutional duties that is exceptional even in light of his record to date."

"The whistle-blower's complaint is one of the great artifacts to enter Washington's sizable archive of political malfeasance. In the second paragraph, its author distills Trump's offense with bracing clarity" "I have received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 election."

"Since 2014, the Kiev government has been a ward of America and Europe, the potential for real or perceived conflicts of interest should have been apparent to  both Bidens. Still, according to Ukrainian officials, no evidence of wrongdoing by either Hunter Biden or Zlochevsky has been found." (Mykola Zlochevsky is a Ukrainian oligarch, who controls Burisma Holdings, on whose board Hunter Biden sat.)

"In May, [Rudy] Giuliani announced that he would go to Kiev to urge the new government to investigate, among other subjects, the Bidens and alleged links between Ukraine and the Democrats. He would do so, he told the "Times," "because that information will be very, very helpful to my client."

"Around mid-July, according to the Washington "Post," Trump ordered his chief of staff to hold back four hundred million dollars in military aid to Ukraine that had been approved by Congress. Then, on July 25th,Trump had the phone call with Zelensky that all the world can now review."

ADDENDUMS:
*John Eisenberg, the White House's legal adviser on national security issues, moved the transcript of Trump's call to President Zelensky, to a classified server after the adviser on Ukraine for the  National Security Council, Army Lt Co. Alexander Vineman, expressed concerns about what was said on the July 25th call.
*U.S. ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, pushed two Ukrainian officials to investigate Trump's political rivals. This was in a July 10th  meeting.