I've warned that impeachment talk is dangerous, but the time has come: Laurence Tribe

[babylonsister]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/04/21/mueller-report-impeachment-invitation-congress-should-accept-column/3529790002/?fbclid=IwAR1jPibe7grpVpkemJ033jnth7q-Xayc_lbX8_Cpu__UIXCWgygErSElxxc


I've warned that impeachment talk is dangerous, but the time has come: Laurence Tribe
Laurence Tribe, Opinion contributor Published 3:15 a.m. ET April 21, 2019
The consequential decision to impeach should not be made lightly. But Mueller's damning report is an invitation that Congress shouldn't refuse.

snip//

Mueller’s report has in no way cleared the president of grave wrongdoing. It would be a lie to claim otherwise, as Barr and Trump repeatedly have done. The report takes pains to note that the investigation could not establish wrongdoing under the strict framework of conspiracy law, but declines to draw a conclusion on the existence of collusion, which “is not a specific offense or theory” under U.S. law. Further, Mueller does not mince words about the president’s potential obstruction of justice, stating: “If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.”

Framers created impeachment for this moment

Congress has a duty to provide a beacon of principle and democratic values to the American people. It must pick up the baton that Mueller has offered and come to a judgment of its own, with the understanding that conduct that falls short of criminal conspiracy may nonetheless be impeachable. Consider, for instance, candidate Trump’s public call for the help of the Russian state in defeating Hillary Clinton — met within hours, the special counsel charged, by Russian attempts to hack domains used by her campaign and personal office. Read together with Mueller’s report, this incident exposes the welcome that Trump and his circle extended to foreign support in manipulating the U.S. electorate. This behavior, whether called “collusion” or something else, is exactly the kind of conduct the Framers had in mind when they created procedures for impeachment.

The report is unequivocal in concluding that even if Trump is criminally innocent of obstruction, it is not for lack of trying. The main reason the investigation wasn’t completely thwarted was not that the president didn’t “endeavor” to thwart it — the definition of criminal obstruction — but rather that Trump’s subordinates refused to comply.

Consider, for comparison, that a president who ordered the military to destroy his political enemies would undeniably have committed impeachable offenses, even if the military failed to obey the directive. Add to this Trump’s decision to respond to the report by taking a victory lap rather than protecting our election systems from ongoing attack, and the likelihood that he continues to be compromised by leverage (financial or otherwise) from adversaries, and one sees a president indifferent to the security of the nation he is sworn to lead and to the Constitution he is sworn to uphold. Allowing such a president to remain immune not only from indictment but also from removal would betray Congress’s own responsibility to the public it represents.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren was right when she said that impeachment is now a point of principle and duty. Postponing impeachment — even out of fear that a Republican-led Senate will fail to convict — no longer makes sense. Any such postponement would not only be unprincipled. It would also be politically shortsighted.To quote Brutus, “We must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.”



Laurence Tribe, co-author of To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment, is a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School and is involved in lawsuits challenging President Trump on policy and ethics. Follow him on Twitter: @tribelaw

[Girard442]

1. At this point, if the House doesn't impeach, Trump will be re-inaugurated January 2021.

[BigmanPigman]

2. Yep, I believe you're right.

They were discussing this just now on Politics Nation. We really do not have a choice. We are damned if we do and damned if we don't so we may as well give it a 100% effort from all fronts.

[moonscape]

5. Such a sad commentary, isn't it, that

we are in a position to say 'dammed if we do' impeach a criminal president.

Such a surreal time ...

[SledDriver]

3. Gotta keep that powder dry.

Even if he had shot someone on 5th ave. It's good for fundraising.

[gibraltar72]

4. Oh my Oh my, what parts of the constitution are important??

[patphil]

6. Democrats must act!

The Democrats in the House must begin the impeachment process now!
It would be an act of moral cowardice and dereliction of duty to do otherwise.
It would also be a repudiation of the rule of law.
Mueller made it plain. The DOJ can't act, but the Congress can, and should.
Also, failure to initiate the impeachment process would do more to elect Trump than anything else anyone could do.
It would legitimize Trump's lawlessness.
Do we want 4 more years of a lawless president?

Patrick Phillips