Impeach Barr Too

Today the United States House of Representatives will vote on the Articles of Impeachment against Donald Trump and will almost certainly approve them by a party line vote with a couple of dissenting Democrats, one of whom has announced he’s switching parties. There’s discussion of making Justin Amash (Independent – MI), who was a Republican until he announced support for impeachment, one of the managers of the Senate trial, if this was a Law & Order episode he’d be an assistant District Attorney. Members of the Senate will be jurors, the judge will be Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

Jury member Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-TN) has publicly stated that he is coordinating with the Donald Trump as to how the Senate trial will be handled even though doing so violates his oath as a juror in the trial held in the Senate. If you made such a statement after being selected as a juror member you’d be booted off the jury and possibly jailed for contempt of court. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has made similar statements. Both men would recuse themselves of if they had any integrity. Trump has been complaining about fairness since the impeachment inquiry began yet he seems uninterested in a fair trial as he’s quite happily been sending campaign donations to Senate Republicans who commit to supporting him in the impeachment trial. In any other trial that would be seen as bribing a juror.

Now that the House is about done with its part of impeaching Trump it’s time to address other serious matters. No, it’s not that the House hasn’t gotten anything else done as there are over 270 bills passed by the House that Mitch McConnell hasn’t allowed to see the light of day in the Senate. The next important job is to impeach Attorney General William Barr for obstruction of Congress, abuse of power and failing to faithfully execute his office.

Barr has held the office for 10 months and during that time he has made it clear that he serves the interests of Donald Trump rather than those of the United States. He misled Congress and the people of the United States through his words and deeds when the Mueller report was made public. He is implicated in the Ukraine scandal over Trump trading military aid and a White House visit for an investigation into a possible 2020 election opponent due to having withheld the whistleblower complaint from Congress. Barr criticized the conclusion of his own department's inspector general who reported that the FBI had a legitimate basis for launching an investigation into Russian interference in our 2016 election and the possibility that the Trump campaign was involved. In addition, Barr has defied congressional subpoenas regarding the 2020 census and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross's claims that a citizenship status question was added at the request of the Department of Justice. The Supreme Court has determined that the justifications for the question offered by the DOJ were contrived and made up after the fact in order to conceal the real reason.

Through his actions Attorney General Barr has politicized the Department of Justice and undermined trust in the law by acting in the interests of a president who has committed impeachable offenses instead of upholding his oath of office and the Constitution of the United States, therefore he should be impeached and removed from office.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 18, 2019

Common Cause Calls For Impeachment

Last Friday the nation-wide non-partisan organization, Common Cause, called for impeaching President Trump. In a letter to every member of congress Karen Hobert Flynn, the president of Common Cause, reviewed the organization’s reasons as “The President and his Administration’s abuse of power, subversion of the rule of law, solicitation of a bribe, campaign finance violations, and obstruction of justice by ignoring subpoenas, undermining congressional investigations, threatening witnesses, and refusing document requests leave Congress no choice but to impeach and convict him.”

Flynn then lists the articles of impeachment recommended by Common Cause, the first four of which are related to Trump’s withholding of hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid which Ukraine needed to defend itself from Russian aggression. The impeachable offenses tied the Ukraine scandal are abuse of power, the solicitation of a bribe, campaign finance violations, and obstruction of justice in the President’s effort to thwart the House Impeachment Inquiry of the Ukraine matter.

Common Cause also recommends Articles of Impeachment for abuse of power and obstruction of justice related to the Russia investigation, and abuse of power for failure to adequately safeguard U.S. elections from foreign interference. Additional Articles of Impeachment are also recommended for campaign finance violations related to “hush money” payments, and violations of the foreign and domestic emoluments clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

All of the recommended Articles of Impeachment as well as a review of Senate rules for an impeachment trial and the additional procedures developed for the Clinton impeachment are described in detail in the 60 page report delivered to every member of congress with the letter on Friday. Common Cause has made the full report available for free at the commoncause.org website.

“Abuse of power,” is not defined in the Constitution or criminal statutes, yet it is most assuredly an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor.  Constitutional law scholar Noah Feldman has explained, “Abuse of power is anything the president does that he can only do by virtue of being president that threatens the basic freedoms and capacities of other people.” One of the three Articles of Impeachment against President Richard Nixon was for abuse of power as was one of the four against President Bill Clinton.

President Trump’s withholding of military aid to Ukraine’s government was both the carrot and stick used to force an investigation by Ukraine’s government into Trump’s 2020 electoral opponent Joe Biden was an abuse of the power of the presidency. In addition those same acts can fairly be described as bribery and/or extortion, attempting to secure Ukraine government assistance for his 2020 reelection campaign in exchange for nearly $400 million of U.S. taxpayer money and a visit to the White House.

Article II of the U.S. Constitution provides that the president “shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

President Trump asked President Zelensky for something of personal political value to Trump that being an investigation of his 2020 electoral opponent Joe Biden in exchange for an official act which was release of military aid to Ukraine. Arguments that President Trump eventually released the Ukraine military aid without assurances of an investigation into Joe Biden and, therefore, did nothing wrong are irrelevant. Under the federal criminal code, a bribe need not be exchanged in order for the law to be violated. It is illegal for a public official to “demand” or “seek” a bribe.

There’s more where this came from, read the report for yourself then call Representative Vicente Gonzalez and urge him to call for impeachment on all nine articles in this report.