Arpaio Pardon May Be Opening Act of a Constitutional Crisis

[babylonsister]

http://billmoyers.com/story/arpaio-pardon-may-opening-act-constitutional-crisis/#.WaGSaAFJbGM.facebook


Arpaio Pardon May Be Opening Act of a Constitutional Crisis

Trump's move Friday night shows the same disregard of the rule of law with which he's trying to quash the Russia probe.

By Charles Kaiser | August 26, 2017

This morning, I received an email from an old friend – one of the country’s top trial lawyers: “I have underestimated Trump. He knows what is coming, including a variety of criminal charges and other impeachable offenses. He is not just arousing his base to anger but to arms, some of them. There is no other way to explain the transgender ban, the Arpaio pardon, his Charlottesville remarks…

“I would think he will pardon himself, family members, Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, among others, and if he is angry enough, Mrs. O’Leary, who, you must admit, got kind of a raw deal.” [Note: Myth has it that one Kate O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern in the barn and started the Great Chicago Fire of l871. She was widely blamed but never charged.]

And the following came from the journalist and author Charles Kaiser. His books include Gay Metropolis, 1968 in America, and The Cost of Courage, a riveting account of one family that joined the French resistance against the Nazi occupation.

— Bill Moyers

Donald Trump’s pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio marks the real beginning of the coming constitutional crisis in America.

Trump started tweeting trial balloons about this a month ago —“all agree the US
— President has the complete power to pardon”– and he has even asserted the unlitigated idea that he can pardon himself. But what he did yesterday puts his presidency on a whole new plane: a Category 5 political hurricane. By pardoning a man convicted of criminal contempt for direct violation of a Federal order, Trump is now flaunting his eagerness to overturn the rule of law in America.

I have never seen anyone who has acted more obviously guilty than Donald Trump has almost every single day since he became president. From his tete-a-tete with James Comey, in which he asked the FBI director to end his investigation of Michael Flynn, to his firing of the same man when he failed to heed that warning, to his newly-reported phone call to North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis to complain about a bill that would protect special counsel Robert Mueller’s independence, the president has engaged in one blatant attempt to obstruct justice after another.

Here is the most logical way to view his pardon of Sheriff Arpaio: it is the latest and gravest step he has taken in his continuing efforts to undermine the rule of law. Obviously Trump delighted in fueling the racism of Arpaio’s supporters by pardoning this convicted criminal –he made that clear earlier this week during his repellent speech in Phoenix. But I am certain that is not the main reason for this heinous act.

snip//

But if there is a majority of Republican senators and House members who wish to avoid a full-blown constitutional crisis worse than anything we have seen since the secession of the Confederate states, they must speak loudly and act clearly right now. They must immediately pass the bill introduced by Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware and Republican Senator Tillis of North Carolina that would shore up the independence of the special prosecutor, and they must pass it with veto-proof majorities.

Senator Lindsay Graham already has said that the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions would mean the beginning of the end of Trump’s presidency. It is long past time for all of Graham’s colleagues in both houses to declare that the same thing will be true if the president dares to repeat the horrific abuse of his pardon power that we witnessed last night. Otherwise, America is destined for an era of violence and darkness unlike any we have ever witnessed since the end of the Civil War, one hundred and fifty-two years ago.

[panader0]

1. The last sentence---something has got to give....

This shit cannot stand.

[rhiannon55]

2. This is a stunningly scary read.

[CrispyQ]

3. I'm beyond alarmed.

Right now I think only the GOP can save us, & they won't. They have betrayed the country with their party first actions. Mueller's investigation will take too long. 2018 & 2020 are too far out & in the interim, the GOP will be disenfranchising even more voters. The dems have very little influence, not just in Congress, but across the nation. For supposedly being the smart kids & being a true majority, we are fucked.

[Initech]

5. The GOP got what they wanted - a semi permanent super majority.

And they are using it to further divide us. And they don't care who they hurt to get their way.

[CrispyQ]

9. Maybe if the market crashes the GOP will act.

My bad. The market is waiting for the GOP to enact those tax cuts.

[Initech]

10. No they still won't care.

Because that might require them to you know, actually govern.

[Bucky]

4. Yay, it's another "beginning of the end" of Trump's presidency

He averages about once per month.

[fallout87]

13. No kidding.

How many times are we going to hear this? Watching Maddow every night, you would think he would have been gone 25 times already. People just don't care unfortunately. Its a messed up world.

[yuiyoshida]

6. That is very scary

Honestly.

[BigmanPigman]

7. The GOP needs to sign onto the Dems bills already introduced in Congress

to establish an Independent and Separate Investigation Commission that is like the 9/11 one but they never will since it is a non partisan commission. Everyone has been calling for this for over 4 months. It would be fairly quick, well funded and staffed, and no one can interfere in it (not the fake prez or GOP Congress).

Then the state courts need to nail them all too.

This is about all we can do except resist like Hell and boycott. That would have an impact if people got on board like they did with the ACA repeal only bigger, stronger, and longer.

[Duppers]

8. K & R

[Honeycombe8]

11. Don't all Presidents pardon people?

They usually do it when leaving office after their final term, but they pardon people serving time who had been found guilty. They all do it, don't they?

Don't get me wrong. I think pardoning this guy is reprehensible. But Presidents can and do that on a regular basis.

[DDySiegs]

12. We Need a New John Wesley Dean III

I watched John Dean give his fateful testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee 44 years ago, but I don't think I ever appreciated until now how important his giving that testimony really was. As the White House Counsel, he knew that that testimony would guarantee that he himself would go to prison.

He deserved that term in prison, no doubt about it. But he also deserved, then and now, the thanks of a grateful nation for playing a big part in helping this country to avoid in the 1970s the horrifying result that Mr. Kaiser describes in his piece.

We need another person now who will make the sacrifice of a possible prison term to lay bare the evil acts of Trump and those who continue to support and defend him out of totally misplaced loyalty and, most importantly, out of their decision to put their own perceived personal interests ahead of those of our constitutional democracy. In our history a few military personnel have had this kind of dedication (and were awarded the medal of honor for it). Let's hope that we will again have someone with that kind character to help stop Trump.