founders, who had so recently cast off the yoke of King George’s tyranny, granted their president awesome powers as the nation’s chief executive and commander-in-chief of its armed forces. Yet they understood the dangers of a runaway presidency. As James Madison warned during the Constitutional Convention, the president “might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppression” and “betray his trust to foreign powers,” with an outcome “fatal to the Republic.” To keep a rogue president in check, delegates separated constitutional powers into three independent branches of government. But knowing that a determined president could crash through these barriers, they also put in place impeachment as the rear guard of American democracy.1
After exhaustive debate, the framers agreed on broad standards for impeachment and assigned this absolute power not to the judiciary, but to elected members of the U.S. House and Senate. By doing so they ensured that the fate of presidents would depend not on standards of law alone, but on the intertwined political, practical, moral, and legal judgment of elected officials. Hamilton explained that impeachments broadly cover “the abuse or violation of some public trust” and are properly “denominated POLITICAL.”2
This book will escort you through the process and history of impeachment; as your warning about the dangers of Trump’s rogue presidency; and as your guide to the myriad transgressions that I predict will lead to his impeachment. I invite you to follow each chapter and decide for yourself when Trump has reached the critical mass of violations that triggers the implosion of his presidency.
In The Case for Impeachment, I’ll look beyond the daily news cycle of events which will have continued to evolve to focus on the big picture of the impeachment process and the Trump presidency. I’ll take you through constitutional debates and the gritty politics of past impeachments. I’ll explain how Trump threatens the institutions and traditions that have made America safe and free for 230 years, and I’ll make clear why a Republican Congress might impeach a president of its own party. I also include a personal memo to President Trump on how he might dispel the clouds of controversy overhanging his presidency and avoid impeachment. I am not calling here for a witch hunt against an unconventional presidency or for snaring Trump on some minor or technical violation. The point is to assess at what point impeachment becomes necessary to protect America’s constitutional liberties and the vital interests of the nation. An impeachment of a president need not imperil the institution of the presidency. “The genius of impeachment,” said historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. is “that it could punish the man without punishing the office.”3
The impeachment of an American president is rare, but not exceptional. The U.S. House of Representatives has impeached two presidents, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998; another, Richard Nixon, only averted impeachment with a timely resignation. Counting Nixon, one out of every fourteen U.S. presidents have faced impeachment. Gamblers have become rich betting on longer odds than that.4
But forget historical odds. Trump has broken all the usual rules of politics and governing. Early in his term, he has stretched presidential authority nearly to the breaking point, appointed cabinet officials dedicated to destroying the institutions they are assigned to run, and pushed America toward legal and constitutional crises.
No previous president has entered the Oval Office without a shred of public service or with as egregious a record of enriching himself at the expense of others. Trump’s penchant for lying, disregard for the law, and conflicts of interests are lifelong habits that will permeate his entire presidency. He has a history of mistreating women and covering up his misdeeds. He could commit his crime against humanity, not directly through war, but indirectly by reversing the battle against catastrophic climate change, upon which humanity’s well-being will likely depend. His dubious connections to Russia could open him to a charge of treason. His disdain for constitutional restraints could lead to abuses of power that forfeit the trust of even a Republican Congress.
What are the ranges and limitations of presidential authority in a system of separated power? What are the standards of truthfulness that a president must uphold? Where should the line be drawn between public service and private gain? Can a free press continue to function in the United States? How can America guard against foreign manipulation of its politics? What responsibility does the president have to protect the earth and its people from catastrophic climate change? When should impeachment be invoked or restrained? These are timeless issues that will decide the future of American democracy. The case for impeaching Donald Trump must be situated in the history of past impeachments—but if you’re really anxious, you can jump ahead to chapter 3 and start right in on Donald Trump.
In his inaugural address, Trump slammed his favorite target, Washington politicians. “For too long,” he said, “a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the costs.” Yet this small group holds in their hands the power to impeach and remove the forty-fifth president.
It is our responsibility to arm ourselves with the knowledge needed to protect our great nation and keep alive its most precious traditions. Already millions of Americans and many more people worldwide have risen in protest against the dangerous presidency of Donald Trump. His impeachment will be decided not just in the halls of Congress but in the streets of America.
____________
The Trump administration is awash in investigations, by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the U.S. House and Senate Intelligence Committees, and the Senate Judiciary Committee. There’s hope to be found in these inquiries. Still, it is past time for the investigation that matters most to President Donald Trump and the American people: an impeachment investigation by the House Judiciary Committee. This committee investigates potential impeachable offenses and decides whether to recommend articles of impeachment to the full House, which possesses the sole constitutional authority necessary for impeaching a president. If impeached, the U.S. Senate has the authority to remove the president from office by a two-thirds vote.
To date, in early November 2017, much new public evidence has emerged that points to collusion between the Trump team and the Russians. Meanwhile, President Trump has ignored nearly all my earlier advice on how to avoid impeachment, choosing instead to endeavor to obstruct the Russia investigation, exacerbate his conflicts of interest, edge closer to committing a crime against humanity on climate change, and continue his abuse of presidential power. Trump’s transgressions have reached the point where Congress must assess whether he poses a clear and present danger to America’s national security and the freedom and liberties of her people.
An impeachment investigation should not turn on disputes over the president’s style or policies, but only on what Alexander Hamilton termed “the abuse of violation of some public trust” that leads to “injuries done immediately to the society itself.” By placing the power to impeach in an elected body, the framers recognized that the assessment of impeachable offenses demands moral, legal, and political judgment.
THE RUSSIAN CONNECTION
The Russian sword of Damocles now hangs over this administration by the slenderest of threads. Despite repeated claims of innocence from Trump and his associates, they’ve engaged in a recurring pattern of deception concerning their ties to the Russians. They conceal and lie, and then when caught, claim that all contacts were innocuous. The publicly known evidence for collusion between the Trump team, and perhaps Trump himself, and the Russians is circumstantial, but powerful. Many Americans have been indicted and convicted of serious crimes based on circumstantial evidence.
The most compelling evidence of collusion
