'Clear pattern' of Trump soliciting 'illegal' election assistance revealed by Judiciary Democrat

With President Donald Trump's former lawyer Rudy Giuliani coming under further scrutiny as two of his associates are arrested for campaign finance fraud, the Ukraine scandal — and the subsequent impeachment investigation — are snowballing even further.

On Thursday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), a member of the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees, told anchor Wolf Blitzer that the scandal fits a "pattern" of behavior that has characterized Trump's entire political career.

"What does it tell you that these two associates of Rudy Giuliani are now charged by the federal government with conspiracy to buy political influence?" asked Blitzer.

"We have a clear pattern here," said Lieu. "In 2016, Russia interfered in our elections and helped Donald Trump. In 2018, we now know that these two associates of Rudy Giuliani helped funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to funnel money to a pro-Trump super PAC. Last month we learned the president of the United States solicited Ukraine to target his political opponent. We're all Americans and we cannot have the American president continue to receive or solicit illegal assistance from foreign powers."

"How will this indictment, congressman, impact your ability to get documents, to get testimony from these two men?" asked Blitzer.

"We've sent out subpoenas to those two associates of Rudy Giuliani's," said Lieu. "We also have issued a subpoena to [Energy Secretary] Rick Perry. We have subpoenaed numerous other witnesses. Why are there so many subpoenas? Because we're seeing epic corruption, corruption at an unprecedented level among senior White House staff going up potentially to the president."

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