Trump
Has Met It
By Tom Steyer for Common Dreams
Former FBI Director James Comey’s explosive testimony before the
Senate Intelligence Committee began with an unambiguous declaration that the
president of the United States lied about his firing.
He went on to raise
serious questions about Trump’s efforts to impede an FBI investigation into
possible collusion between Trump or his associates and the Russian government.
These questions require immediate investigation by an independent commission
free of Trump’s interference.
While there is much that requires further investigation, we cannot
continue to stick our heads in the sand in avoidance of what is already known.
Impeachment of an elected president is an act of enormous magnitude that must
not be undertaken lightly or in response to routine political disagreements or
policy differences. But the seriousness of the remedy speaks not only to the
danger of its misuse, but to the importance of using it when appropriate.
Our
system depends on trust and goodwill. Breaking of norms and disregard for
decency have huge, long-term costs. No one can be immune from our laws;
everyone must be held to account.
If Congress does not uphold that principle, it will have done more damage to our democracy than Russia could ever hope to.
The clear and undisputed facts about Mr. Trump’s attempt to
impede an FBI investigation demand an immediate impeachment inquiry by the
House of Representatives.
- While running for office, the president of the United States publicly asked Russia to reveal his opponent’s email correspondence.
- Russia successfully interfered in our presidential election with the intent of helping Trump, by hacking the computer systems of his opponent
- The president’s closest associates, including his Attorney General, former National Security Adviser, and son-in-law have made false claims under oath during background checks and confirmation hearings about their contacts with agents of the Russian government
- The president has said on national television that he fired the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation because of the FBI’s investigation of Russian electoral interference.
These facts are not in serious dispute — indeed, two of them are
simply the president’s own televised words. Other recent revelations are
similarly concerning:
- Trump reportedly asked the Director of National Intelligence, in presence of the Director of the CIA, to impede the FBI investigation of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, a close Trump associate who kept secret his contacts with Russia..
- Former FBI Director James Comey has testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee that Trump requested his “loyalty” — a request House Speaker Paul Ryan acknowledges is an inappropriate threat to the FBI’s independence — and urged him to drop the Flynn investigation.
- Trump reportedly told Russian officials that firing Comey had relieved “great pressure because of Russia.”
The facts that we know already exceed standards for presidential
impeachment for obstruction of justice set in 1974 and 1998.
The first article of impeachment recommended by the House
Judiciary Committee in 1974 stated that President Nixon:
“[I]n violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of president of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice.”
The Committee specifically accused
Nixon of “interfering or endeavouring to interfere with the conduct of
investigations by … the Federal Bureau of Investigation” and “endeavouring
to misuse the Central Intelligence Agency.”
When House Republicans impeached President Bill Clinton in 1998,
they cited his alleged obstruction of an investigation into a matter far less
consequential than possible collaboration with a successful Russian attack of
American democracy.
One of two articles of impeachment passed by the House
asserted that Clinton, “in violation of his constitutional duty to take care
that the laws be faithfully executed, has prevented, obstructed, and impeded
the administration of justice.”
Explaining his support for Clinton’s
impeachment, Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte said: “the president knowingly engaged
in a calculated pattern of lies, deceit, and delay in order to mislead the
American people [and] impede the search for truth.”
Rep. Goodlatte now serves
as chair of the House Judiciary Committee, which has responsibility for
conducting impeachment hearings.
The facts we already know — facts that are not in dispute,
including the president’s own televised statements — easily meet the standards
for impeachment set by Congressional Republicans in 1998, many of whom are
still in office.
The president of the United States has admitted firing an FBI
Director over an investigation into Russian election interference on his
behalf — the most serious foreign attack on American democracy since our
nation’s founding.
We must demand answers to many grave questions arising from
this crisis, but the most urgent is this: How are Congressional Republicans
going to hold to account a president whose efforts to obstruct an FBI
investigation clearly meet the standards for impeachment articulated by
Congressional Republicans fewer than twenty years ago?
Tom Steyer is the
founder of NextGen and a philanthropist who has pledged to give most of his
wealth to charitable causes.