By Dave Lindorff
There is pressure, especially from some newly elected Democrats in the House of Representatives, for impeaching President Trump. This is being opposed by more cautious House leaders and especially by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who fear that an impeachment effort would simply energize Trump supporters and restore flagging support for him among Republicans as we head into the next presidential election cycle.
I would argue, as I did in 2006 in the book I wrote along with Center for Constitutional Rights attorney Barbara Olshansky (The Case for Impeachment, St. Martins Press) which laid out the high crimes and misdemeanors of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, that even if there is no chance of a Senate conviction or even a Senate trial, it is critically important, when such crimes against law and Constitution are committed, to call presidents to account by airing the charges, calling witnesses, and voting on specific articles of impeachment in a duly impaneled Impeachment Committee hearing in the House of Representatives.
And Trump's impeachable crimes, after less than two years in office, are legion including: launching wars in Syria and Yemen in violation of international law and without Congressional authorization, asserting the power to cancel approved treaties by falsely claiming a national emergency, violating the Constitution's Emolument's Clause by personally profiting from his office, Appointing an attorney general without Senate approval, obstructing justice, lying to the American people (repeatedly!), conspiracy to conceal crimes, advocating violence and undermining equal protection under the law, abuse of presidential pardon power, undermining press freedom, imprisoning children and violation of campaign finance laws
It's certainly true that if and when the House has a bill submitted by some member or group of members of the House, laying out proposed articles of impeachment against President Trump for these and other crimes and calling for a formal impeachment hearing, there will be loud screams of opposition from Republicans in House and Senate. They, and the pundits on Fox TV and talk radio will accuse the Democrats of grandstanding, of attempting to undo the results of the 2016 election and of trying to tie up Congress in interminable hearings.
All that is inevitable.
But once the House Judiciary Committee, a sober body composed of members from both parties, is constituted as an Impeachment Panel and begins hearings, calling and subpoenaing witnesses to make the case for various articles of impeachment a process which, as we have seen in impeachments of President Richard Nixon and President Bill Clinton, will be televised live and watched by much of the nation, ensures that the truth will out, the American public will get to see and hear the unfiltered testimony of witnesses and will be able to make up their own minds. This will happen even though there will certainly be spin doctors in the various media trying to amplify the crimes or to minimize them"...
For the rest of this article by DAVE LINDORFF, co-author of "The Case for Impeachment: The legal argument for Removing George W. Bush from office" (St. Martin's Press, 2006), and a member of ThisCantBeHappening!, the uncompromised, collectively run, six-time Project Censored Award-winning alternative news site, please go to: https://thiscantbehappening.
(Article changed on January 10, 2019 at 14:30)
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