Whatever you think about President Trump’s Ukraine policy (I believe it was good then bad), the president is likely to escape a Senate impeachment conviction. That is unless an audio file is released which implicates Trump in a conspiracy to withhold U.S. aid in return for investigations against the Bidens.

Could that audio exist? It might. As I noted in November and the Washington Post observed last week, there is almost certainly audio somewhere out there. The Russian intelligence services will have prioritized intercepting calls between the White House and U.S. officials handling Ukraine, whether it be Gordon Sondland, Bill Taylor, or Rudy Giuliani. But the question is what might be on those calls.