PolitiFact: Trump’s acts regarding Ukraine resulted in his impeachment, was not treason

VoteVets: "Donald Trump's appeasement of Putin wasn't just a personal act of treason, it's the Republican Party's official position." PolitiFact's ruling: Mostly False Here's why: The progressive veterans advocacy group VoteVets made several accurate statements in an attack ad that seeks to tie former President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans to Russian President Vladimir Putin. But it followed up those statements with an exaggerated and misleading conclusion. Here are the ad’s central claims: "Remember, Donald Trump was impeached for threatening to withhold military aid from Ukraine." This is accurate. The House on Dec. 18, 2019, impeached Trump on two charges — abuse of power, in holding up security assistance and a White House meeting to put pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and obstruction of Congress to cover up that campaign.

"And remember, 52 out of 53 Republican senators voted to let Trump get away with it." This, too, is accurate. The Senate on Feb. 5, 2020, acquitted Trump of both charges. The only Republican voting to convict was Utah’s Mitt Romney, on the abuse of power charge. The ad, launched six days after Russia invaded Ukraine, then ends with an incendiary claim that lacks the same level of accuracy. It declared: "Donald Trump’s appeasement of Putin wasn’t just a personal act of treason, it’s the Republican Party’s official position." What the ad described as Trump’s appeasement of Putin did not amount to treason, because Trump’s acts did not occur during wartime or during an armed rebellion. The U.S. Constitution mentions very few crimes specifically, but is clearly defines treason: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. "The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted." On the most basic level, treason has to occur in wartime, or during an armed rebellion against the U.S. government. While there are tensions between Putin and the United States amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, President Joe Biden has been very pointed in saying the United States would not join the conflict.