Global Opinions • Opinion
Democrats should impeach Trump for his forgotten felonies, too
By Brian Klaas
October 16 at 10:55 AM PT
President Trump speaks at a meeting with Italy's President Sergio Mattarella in the Oval Office on Wednesday. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Believe me, I get it. Donald Trump’s presidency has been so chaotic, so tumultuous, so defined by scandal that it’s hard to keep track of every astonishing twist in the plot.
And the Ukraine case — unlike some of the president’s other mind-bending scandals — is so straightforward that it’s tempting to focus all of our attention on it. Its clarity is seductive.
But we can’t allow that to divert our gaze from President Trump’s other crimes. The president stands credibly accused of felonies that have been pushed out of the public consciousness by the stories of his more recent misdeeds. Thankfully, crimes don’t disappear when they stop being the lead story on cable news. Several criminal allegations against Trump remain unresolved — and their resolution should be central to impeachment proceedings.
Remember Stormy Daniels? She hasn’t been in the news recently, but that doesn’t change a stunning fact: Trump knowingly participated in a felony criminal conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws while in the Oval Office. The Justice Department says that "Individual 1, Trump, directed the conspiracy. We have seen physical evidence in the form of checks signed by Trump himself. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, is serving a prison term for carrying out the conspiracy at Trump’s direction.
Then there’s the Mueller report. Remember that? The report deferred to the Office of Legal Counsel’s determination (however flawed) that a sitting president cannot be indicted. But it also pointed out that “a criminal investigation during the President’s term is permissible,” implying that the only remedy for holding a president accountable for criminal behavior is impeachment.
Volume II of the report identified 10 — count ‘em, 10 — separate alleged instances of obstruction of justice. These range from the firing of FBI Director James B. Comey because of “this Russia thing with Trump and Russia,” to Trump’s efforts to dismiss special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, to his efforts to prevent disclosures related to the infamous Trump Tower meeting. Each one of the alleged acts would count as a felony.
After the report was published, a bipartisan group of more than 1,000 former federal prosecutors signed a letter stating that Trump would have been indicted on a charge of obstruction of justice if he were anyone but the president. The signatories include Rudolph W. Giuliani’s former deputy when they served in the Reagan administration; a former senior counsel under Kenneth Starr who is a member of the staunchly conservative Federalist Society; and a former deputy attorney general who served under George W. Bush. Not exactly Birkenstock-clad Bernie bros.
(Keep in mind that Trump’s campaign chairman, deputy campaign chairman, former national security adviser, former personal lawyer and former foreign policy adviser are all convicted felons. And now there’s reportedly an ongoing criminal investigation into his current personal lawyer, Giuliani, as well.)
Next, there are Trump’s ongoing violations of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which was intended to stop presidents from being swayed by foreign payments. Trump’s refusal to divest from his business interests has given foreign regimes significant sway over U.S. foreign policy. At least 22 foreign governments have funneled cash to Trump’s businesses.
Was Trump’s calamitous decision to betray America’s Kurdish allies by greenlighting Turkey’s invasion of Syria affected by what he called “a little conflict of interest” in the form of two Trump Towers in Istanbul? We will never know. But it’s reckless to allow a president to govern when what is best for his wallet regularly clashes with what is best for the United States. On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit breathed new life into an emoluments case, with a hearing scheduled for December.
There is no clause in the Constitution that allows presidents to commit crimes. If some of his abuses are not included in the eventual articles of impeachment, it sets the precedent that a future president can get away with similar conduct.
But it’s not just the right thing to do for principle or precedent; it’s also smart politics. If the House of Representatives creates a laser-focused impeachment inquiry, Senate Republicans can try to dodge the beam. With any individual scandal, their dodges might work. But can they dodge all of them? Furthermore, a broader set of charges would allow moderate Republicans to vote to acquit on several charges, allowing them to save face by drawing distance between themselves and Democrats, while still voting to convict on at least one impeachment article.
And if Senate Republicans want to endorse all of Trump’s allegedly criminal behavior with a full acquittal, at least it will forever stain their legacies in history.
The impeachment process should remind Americans — and Republicans in Congress — of all of Trump’s crimes. Restricting the congressional indictment to only the most recent scandals would be a serious blunder.
