Tag: impeachment

Dems see GOP effort to drive them to impeach Trump

House Democratic leaders facing liberal calls for impeaching President Trump are confronting increasing pressure from an unlikely faction: Republicans who appear eager to goad them into it.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her leadership team have repeatedly sought to defuse the appeals for impeachment hearings, deeming them premature, and some Democrats sense the Republicans are setting a political trap to boost their ally in the White House.

But recent stonewalling actions by the administration have only fueled the liberal push to oust the president, complicating leadership efforts to keep a lid on the campaign.

View the complete May 5 article by Mike Lillis and Cristina Marcos on The Hill website here.

Is Obstruction an Impeachable Offense? History Says Yes

WASHINGTON — President Trump has been consulting the Constitution. In a Twitter post on Monday, he recited part of Article II, Section 4, the provision that allows Congress to remove federal officials who commit “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Mr. Trump wrote that he had done none of those things: “There were no crimes by me (No Collusion, No Obstruction), so you can’t impeach.”

The president’s analysis had two shortcomings. It misstated the conclusion of the report issued by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, which made no definitive judgment about whether Mr. Trump had violated criminal laws concerning obstruction of justice. And it failed to take account of what the framers meant by “other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

View the complete April 23 article by Adam Liptak on The New York Times website here.

Fact check: Trump focuses on ‘crimes,’ but impeachment is a political decision

Founders left it to Congress to define ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,’ scholars say

ANALYSIS — Impeachment is very much on President Donald Trump’s mind even after he declared victory right as special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report was made public. But some of his arguments against it are contradicted by the former FBI director’s conclusions and legal scholars.

“Only high crimes and misdemeanors can lead to impeachment. There were no crimes by me (No Collusion, No Obstruction), so you can’t impeach,” the president tweeted Monday morning as the hashtag #ImpeachDonaldTrump was trending on Twitter in the United States. A few hours later, the president told reporters he was “not even a little bit” concerned about being impeached.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Only high crimes and misdemeanors can lead to impeachment. There were no crimes by me (No Collusion, No Obstruction), so you can’t impeach. It was the Democrats that committed the crimes, not your Republican President! Tables are finally turning on the Witch Hunt!

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There are a few questionable assumptions and legal implications in those 23 words, starting with the president’s assertion that he did not obstruct justice.

View the complete April 22 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.

Trump issues an ominous and dangerous warning about the consequences of impeachment

Credit: Kevin Lamarque, Reuters

Trump believes he has the people on his side in the event of impeachment. Evidence is scant.

With Democrats now taking over the House, and new revelations from the prosecutions of President Donald Trump’s inner circle coming out by the day, talk is inevitably turning toward the possibility the president could be impeached before his term is out.

But Trump himself insists he’s not worried about that in a new interview with Reuters in the Oval Office.

“It’s hard to impeach somebody who hasn’t done anything wrong and who’s created the greatest economy in the history of our country,” Trump said. “I’m not concerned, no. I think that the people would revolt if that happened,” he said.

View the complete December 11 article by Matthew Chapman on the AlterNet.org website here.

Congress will have to ‘start impeachment’ process after Cohen filings, former Nixon counsel says

Federal prosecutors filed new court papers on Dec. 7 that revealed a previously unreported contact from a Russian to Trump’s inner circle during the campaign. (Melissa Macaya , Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

John Dean, a White House counsel under President Richard M. Nixon convicted for his role in the Watergate scandal, said Friday that allegations against President Trump detailed in new court filings give Congress “little choice” other than to begin impeachment proceedings.

Dean’s comments, made during CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” segment, follow the release of a legal memo from federal prosecutors in New York regarding Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen. Prosecutors wrote Cohen had implicated Trump in the arrangement of hush-money payments to women during the 2016 election.

“I don’t know that this will forever disappear into some dark hole of unprosecutable presidents,” Dean said. “I think it will resurface in the Congress. I think what this totality of today’s filings show that the House is going to have little choice, the way this is going, other than to start impeachment proceedings.”

View the complete December 8 article by Michael Brice-Saddler on The Washington Post website here.

In Fight for Judiciary Slot, Democrats Broach the ‘I’ Word: Impeachment

The following article by Nicholas Fandos was posted on the New York Times website December 18, 2017:

Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York has pitched himself to be the top-ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committe.Credit:  Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York has a bold pitch to take over the top Democratic spot on the House Judiciary Committee — that he is best positioned to lead impeachment proceedings against President Trump.

“As our constitutional expert, and with his demonstrated leadership on impeachment in the 90s, Nadler is our strongest member to lead a potential impeachment,” Mr. Nadler wrote on a pocket-size leaflet outlining his record. Continue reading “In Fight for Judiciary Slot, Democrats Broach the ‘I’ Word: Impeachment”

The case for normalizing impeachment

The following article by Ezra Klein was posted on the Vox website November 30, 2017:

Impeaching an unfit president has consequences. But leaving one in office could be worse.

Credit: Chris Malbon for Vox

In recent months, I have grown obsessed with a seemingly simple question: Does the American political system have a remedy if we elect the wrong person to be president? There are clear answers if we elect a criminal, or if the president falls into a coma. But what if we just make a hiring mistake, as companies do all the time? What if we elect someone who proves himself or herself unfit for office — impulsive, conspiratorial, undisciplined, destructive, cruel?

My fixation on this question began with President Donald Trump’s tweets to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. This was the president of the United States, the man who controls the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, launching deranged, unvetted provocations at the most singularly irrational regime in the world: Continue reading “The case for normalizing impeachment”

Impeachment calls grow louder

The following article by Mike Lillis was posted on the Hill website November 1, 2017:

The Democratic effort to impeach President Trump is set to expand — but not everyone in the party is cheering.

A group of Democrats will file new articles of impeachment against the president this month, according to Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), who’s supporting the push. But the campaign is sure to prove a headache for Democratic leaders, who have ventured all year to tamp down rank-and-file attempts to oust the president amid concerns that they’ll undermine efforts to win back the House. Continue reading “Impeachment calls grow louder”

Fact Checker’s guide to obstruction of justice, executive privilege and impeachment

The following article by Michelle Ye Hee Lee was posted on the Washington Post website July 10, 2017:

The special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections widened the scope of the probe — including whether President Trump obstructed justice when firing James B. Comey as FBI director. Now, with every new development, Trump’s critics are quick to call for his impeachment and label his actions as obstruction of justice.

Yet this is not a simple process, and many times, such reactions are exaggerated. It’s still early in the investigation, with no indication yet whether any findings could lead to potential charges. Continue reading “Fact Checker’s guide to obstruction of justice, executive privilege and impeachment”

White House Lawyers Research Impeachment: Report

The following article by Tom Porter with Newsweek was posted on the National Memo website May 21, 2017:

White House lawyers are researching impeachment procedures in an effort to prepare for a possible attempt to remove President Donald Trump from office. With both houses of Congress controlled by a Republican majority, Trump’s impeachment is a distant possibility but one that the White House is preparing for, two people briefed on the discussions told CNN.

Trump faces criticism for his alleged attempts to influence an FBI investigation into reports of collusion between Trump campaign officials and Russia during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Continue reading “White House Lawyers Research Impeachment: Report”