United States Constitution
Article 2, Section 4
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
"When the President does it, that means it's not illegal." —President Richard Nixon, in a 1977 interview with David Frost.
"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters." — Donald Trump, January 23, 2016
President Richard Nixon did more to concentrate power in the executive branch than any president before him. With the authority he claimed, he refused to spend funds Congress appropriated and he blocked key decision makers from being questioned by congressional committees. This usurpation of Article 1 power was among the articles of impeachment that were to be levied against him.¹
"Carl Bernstein [said] that Richard Nixon was “sui generis”, he was uniquely corrupt and it was hardly thinkable that any US president would be so irremediably crooked.
In support of that contention he said new information about Richard Nixon had emerged which showed that he had attempted to denigrate the name of his predecessor in the White House, Lyndon Johnson, and he even had urged that a safe supposedly holding incriminating documents concerning Lyndon Johnson be blown open. Also that Richard Nixon had instigated surveillance on political reporters and journalists to an unprecedented extent."²
After Nixon resigned to avoid the stigma of impeachment, Congress worked to rein in the notion of an imperial presidency. They were largely effective but Dick Cheney and like-minded Republicans had garnered support for reinstating presidential superiority. Cheney got his break when George W Bush chose him as a running mate and the tragedy of 9/11 supplied ample opportunity.
Republicans were delighted until Barack Obama was elected. Now they decided that a Democratic president was abusing the powers they had worked so hard to confer and consistently cried "dictator" (conveniently forgetting that Bush said governing would be easier in a dictatorship).
Now, the GOP is once again suffering from selective amnesia and are reveling in Donald Trump's wholehearted employment of and blatant abuse of powers they found so untenable for Obama. Their vindictive partisanship, so obvious during Obama's 8 years (refusing to hold confirmation hearings for the judiciary culminating in denying the President his right of a SCOTUS nomination), has become insidious after Democrats retook the House in 2018. To the detriment of our democratic republic, their tunnel vision has led them to fully support a man who was vilified by a vast majority of them when he was campaigning for the Oval Office.
Trump has made Nixon look like an amateur when it comes to abuse of power. He has usurped Congressional powers in trade and allocation of funds, ignored both law and tradition in areas such as nepotism, politicking, personal financial gain, and made a mockery of national security by revealing classified information to unsavory world leaders, including adversaries, and belittling the intelligence community.
For two years the Republican Congress aided him in running rampant, ravaging the tenets of the Constitution and undoing every positive social and ecological gain made by President Obama. (On Trump's part, more out of spite and animosity against Obama than ideology.) The only allowance made to the rule of law was acquiescence in appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Prosecutor to investigate Russian interference in our elections and what part the Trump campaign may have played.
As Mueller did his job and uncovered a multitude of illegalities, Republicans and right wing media levied a continual barrage of insinuation and accusations of bias and overstepping of permissible probes. The Democratic House, under Nancy Pelosi's rule, allowed Trump to continue to abuse his authority and his oath as the idea of impeachment was deemed too risky by Pelosi. Hope's were unfortunately laid at Mueller's feet.
To the dismay of increasing numbers wanting to impeach, Mueller punted. Though finding at least 10 instances of obstruction of justice, an impeachable offense, a dubious DOJ memo saying a sitting president can't be indicted led Mueller to merely aver, "If we had confidence that the president did not commit a crime, we would have said so." William Barr, chosen by Trump as Attorney General and protector, quickly spun the noncommittal report as an exoneration. Republicans and their media arm, as usual more effective than Democrats at spin, claimed victory and the House allowed Trump to continue to ride roughshod over the Constitution and the separation of power.
Below is my list of abuses, illegalities, and violations of the oath of office committed by Trump. Pelosi has allowed these travesties to go unanswered on the mistaken idea that, since the sycophantic Senate wouldn't convict, there would be a backlash that could return the House to the Republicans. That's a disparaging view of the citizenry. Once the multitude of "high crimes and misdemeanors" is enumerated in open hearings the public will be unable to ignore their 2016 electoral college blunder. In addition, seeing the Senate Republicans excuse such criminality might bring out enough voters who care about country over party to hand that body to the Democrats as well. Hope lies eternal....
Many pundits, along with Pelosi, say voting Trump out in 2020 is the best path, amounting to his "indictment." Depending on an election outcome is more dangerous than impeachment. Allowing Trump's presidency to go unchallenged by the House's oversight mandate validates his blatant violation of the oath and lays a path for the next wannabe dictator to continue to abuse power. After all, a known conman who promised to run the country like his business (despite widely publicized multiple bankruptcies) and laid out his racism and bigotry in his campaign announcement speech was placed in the White House by our undemocratic electoral college on 77,000 votes. Impeachment, whether or not successfully removing this stain on our country, is imperative.
Finally, on September 24, 2019, the Speaker gave her imprimatur to impeachment hearings. The straw on her camel's back was the most blatant national security danger of Trump's most recent illegality (last on the list).
High Crimes and Misdemeanors:
- Emoluments Clause violations
- Usurping Article 1 powers (Illegally dictating trade policy—specifically tariffs, EOs to bypass Congress)
- Campaign finance violations (unindicted co-conspirator in Cohen conviction)
- Destroying documents and communications in violation of Presidential Records Act of 2014
- Virtually inciting race war, xenophobia, and disparaging political opponents (Article 10 of Andrew Johnson's impeachment was proposed by Massachusetts representative Benjamin Butler. It charged Johnson with making speeches “with a loud voice, certain intemperate, inflammatory, and scandalous harangues” with the intent to disgrace Congress.)
- Kidnapping
- Refusing asylum in violation of US and international law
- Promising pardons for land theft to build his wall
- Obstruction of justice (in Russian interference investigation and in all other oversight attempts by refusing to allow witnesses to testify; Mueller listed at least 10 instances alone)
- Witness tampering, including making up false executive privilege and "granting" private citizens use of it ("the president does not get to instruct a private citizen to not respond under oath to questions. add it to the articles of impeachment"—tweet by Jennifer Rubin)
- Cooperation w/ Russia in interfering in election of 2016
- Consistent aid in Putin's efforts to discredit democratic rule by refusing to admit election interference, misappropriation of military funds meant for European Defense Initiative; withholding aid to Ukraine
- Habit of divulging classified info (sub locations revealed to Philippine dictator, info given us by Israel told to Russian officials [caused intel to withdraw important source close to Putin for fear of their life], images from Iran which possibly reveal sensitive intel methods [or more leaked intel Israel gave us] so he could tweet snarky sympathy to Iran)
- Overuse of "acting directors" to avoid embarrassing confirmation hearings
- Pathological lying
- Alienating allies, frequently to curry favor with Putin or other autocrats
- Falsifying official documents from NOAA (18 U.S. Code § 2074)
- Subjorning violations of Hatch Act
- Attempting to use position to prosecute not only political enemies but ex-govt employees who tell unpleasant truths about Trump (Comey, Clinton, Obama, McCabe, Brennan [security clearance revoked])
- Extorted auto manufacturers to keep them from signing on to higher emissions standards
- Pelosi's "straw" — Admittedly pressuring Ukraine to dig up, or fabricate, dirt on Hunter Biden to smear his supposed opponent in 2020 election³
¹Watergate Articles Of Impeachment - Watergate.info
Full text of the Watergate Articles of Impeachment as passed by the US House
https://watergate.info/impeachment/articles-of-impeachmentExcept for the paragraph on Watergate break-in, it could be written for Trump
²Richard Nixon committed far greater crimes than the Watergate break-in
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/richard-nixon-committed-far-greater-crimes-than-the-watergate-break-in-1.1433510
³A whistleblower filed a complaint against Trump which is supposed to involve promising someone something he shouldn't. The Inspector General deemed it urgent but the DNI failed to send it to Congress in defiance of the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989. While reports of the concern led to the uncovering of the extortion by Trump of Ukraine, there has been no actual linking of the two. An uncharacteristic vote in Senate unanimously passed a resolution to hand over the whistleblower complaint.
A more succinct list of Trump's criminality, with links to further elucidate on each:
"Donald Trump vs. the United States of America"
Just the facts, in 40 sentences.
New York Times, 9/22/2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/22/opinion/trump-ukraine-whistle-blower.html
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