Democratic Congressman Files Article Of Impeachment Against Donald Trump

It was only a matter of when. A California Congressman has introduced an article of impeachment against Donald Trump. The Hill reports:

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) formally introduced an article of impeachment against President Trump on Wednesday that accuses the president of obstructing justice during the federal investigation of Russia’s 2016 election interference.

This is the first time a lawmaker has offered an impeachment article against Trump, and it comes as Democrats have debated whether it is politically wise to press the case for impeachment at this time…

In filing his impeachment article, Sherman argues that Trump’s abrupt firing of James Comey as FBI director in May amounts to obstructing justice and “high crimes and misdemeanors” amid the probes of whether Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russian government to swing the election…

He cites Comey’s allegations that Trump pressured him to drop the FBI’s investigation into ousted former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn, as well as Trump’s shifting story on why he fired Comey.

“In all of this, Donald John Trump has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as president and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Wherefore, Donald John Trump, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office,” the article of impeachment states.

So far only one other member of Congress, Al Green of Texas, is supporting the action.

Of course it is rather early and the number of members supporting impeachment could increase after the current investigations, which are still in an early stage, are concluded. The firing of James Comey does certainly appear to have been done in order obstruct his investigation. At present there is far further evidence of a cover-up on the part of Trump and members of  his administration than of the actual crime. While it is possible that evidence of collusion with Russia to swing the election will be uncovered during the course of the investigation, there is not yet clear evidence that Donald Trump did collude with Russia.

I have suspected that, at least, Trump was acting to protect members of his administration, and that any crimes very likely involved their financial dealings. The recent revelation of Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with an attorney close to the Russian government, based upon an offer of information about Hillary Clinton, along with actions of Jared Kusnher, suggest that Donald Trump might have engaged in obstruction of justice to protect members of his family, along with members of his campaign staff and administration.

In order for impeachment to succeed it would require a simple majority vote in the House, but also require a two-thirds vote in the Senate to remove the president. Therefore it would require bipartisan support to remove Trump regardless of how well the Democrats do in the 2018 election. So far only two presidents have ever been impeached, including Bill Clinton, and technically no presidents have ever been removed from office by this route. Richard Nixon was forced to resign when his impeachment and conviction appeared inevitable.

An alternative mechanism under the 25th Amendment could also be used to remove Trump if he could be declared unfit to perform the duties of the presidency. While a quicker mechanism, this would be even more difficult to achieve as it would have to be initiated by the vice president and requires the support of two-thirds of each House should the president contest the action.

10 Comments

  1. 1
    Joseph Auclair says:

    I now expect it will turn out to be true that, besides being guilty of as yet unidentified crimes of corruption involving Russia, Trum personally and some of his campaign team will turn out in fact to have colluded with Russians acting with the knowledge and blessing and even participation of Putin in meddling in our election, complete with guilty knowledge and encouragement of the various forms of hacking and other cyber-crimes and dirty tricks the Russians are guilty of.

    And that various forms of important foreign policy and other quid pro quos were actually agreed to by Trump and others in return for Putin's help.

    I did not earlier think that Rachel Madow's wildest suspicions and speculations were likely right.

    But I do now.

  2. 2
    Ron Chusid says:

    We will see as the investigations continue.

  3. 3
    Mike Hatcher says:

    It is speculation on my part, but I don't believe the investigation will show collusion. What seems obvious at this point is that Trump Junior was willing to collude. But willingness is not doing. By analogy, there may be a willingness of some guy to pay Jennifer Aniston ten dollars to sleep with him, his willingness doesn't mean he is guilty of pandering nor Ms. Aniston of prostitution.  Russia is going to do what they are going to do, mess with whomever they want to mess with, they don't need to be paid ten dollars by Trump Junior to do it. I guess it is possible, but it would really shock me if there was any real coordination between the two entities to try to get Trump to win.

  4. 4
    Ron Chusid says:

    It is getting harder to claim actual collusion (as opposed to willingness) considering that nothing came out of the meeting. On the other hand, it is harder for the Republicans to claim that the Trumps are completely innocent. This is more like if Donald, Jr. received an offer to meet Jennifer Aniston to sleep with her, but when he got there nothing happened. He would not be guilty of a crime, but his wife still would have reason to be angry with him if she found out.

  5. 5
    Mike Hatcher says:

    Ron, you stated that very well. The loyalty people show these leaders that so clearly lack any moral fiber, is a bit baffling to me.

  6. 6
    Robert J Kolker says:

    Nothing will come of this.  There is a Republican majority in the House and a Bill of Impeachment has two chances of passing —  slim and none.

  7. 7
    Robert J Kolker says:

    Such a filing has two chances of success in the Republican House  — slim and none.

    And even if such a bill were passed (highly unlikely)  and even if the Senate removed Donald  Trump (even more unlikely)  the joke would be on the Democrats. Mike Pence would then become President.

  8. 8
    Ron Chusid says:

    There is a long shot chance that the Republicans might vote for impeachment if Trump's popularity falls even more and they see him as a huge liability. The party regulars have no great love for Trump, and would rather have Pence. On the other hand, if Trump was impeached, the Republican brand would suffer and Pence might be pretty weak by that point. Also can't rule out the chance that whatever brings down Trump could also bring down Pence (although that would leave Ryan as next in line). 

  9. 9
    Steve Fye says:

    There is no such thing as Liberal values anymore. They've gone off the deep end with lies and crazy conspiracy theories. For liberals facts are completely ignored for political purposes. In the process, liberals are losing voters with every turn. The last time I voted for a democrat was Obama in 2008. At this rate I doubt I will ever vote for another one. Their fantasies of impeaching Trump (for no legitimate reason) will never come to fruition and if it did this country would have an extremely bloody civil war bringing this country to ruins. I believe that is their true motivation. If they can't have what they want they will burn this country to the ground. The only way to avoid this is to quit being such sore losers and wait for the next election cycle. Right now your just ruining any chance you'll ever have to win another election again. But, I'm sure this will fall on deaf ears being that the insanity of thinking that you can miraculously pull off some sort of coup is the height of derangement. I pray this country will eventually pull together, but with people like known Nazi George Soros giving hundreds of millions of dollars for the downfall of this country (like he did in Britain some time ago) I won't be holding my breath. 

  10. 10
    Ron Chusid says:

    There are hardly any lies or conspiracy theories in criticizing Trump. Trump has acted to obstruct justice, but any impeachment effort will only proceed after the current investigations are completed and there is further evidence against Trump.

    It would not be any sort of liberal coup. The impeachment process requires bipartisan support and will only occur with bipartisan agreement. Some polls do already show majority support for impeachment, but more Republicans will have to come on board for this to succeed. In such a case, impeachment would be done under the Constitution, and by definition would not be a coup.

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