that were based, literally, on the use of the word "hope" and the courts found that "hope" can be a directive.

On the so-called "smoking gun" tape, H.R. Haldeman explained how they could get the CIA to persuade to FBI to back away from investigating the Watergate burglary. All Nixon said in response was "uh huh." And that was enough
for draft articles of impeachment alleging obstruction of justice and abuse of power.

There was an actual established crime with defendants sitting in jail. Here they are investigating whether a crime has been committed and who might have been committed.

In this case the obstruction of Justice and abuse of power comes from the firing to impede law enforcement finding if a crime was committed and was an abuse of power.

My point is that if the "hope" and directive wasn't an obstruction of justice he actually went out and fired the head of the FBI to prevent an investigation to go on.

the firing was obstruction, but the initial ask was also obstruction.

Once he fired him the question was answered, all ambiguity evaporated.

Well, for those who like a smidgeon of logic in their arguments, anyway....

There is no legal standard that they must follow. The only check on them is their next election. Impeachment is a political process, not a legal one. They would argue and discuss all sorts of legal matters, but in the end it is political.

all acting in concert to obfuscate the criminal conduct that includes the DNC hack in collusion with the Russians. Don't allow them to control the narrative or remove 90% of the story from the booking book. Trump and his fellow co-conspirators have been obstructing from the minute they knew there was an investigation and likely even before that because they knew releasing the emails would trigger an investigation. They literally planned for the investigation and obstruction as part of their criminal enterprise, stealing the Presidency.

Because.....I don't know.

He's an idiot.