With conclusion of hearings in the Intelligence Committee, the next step in the impeachment of Donald Trump is a hearing in the Judiciary Committee, where we expect articles of impeachment to be drawn. Those articles are critical, because they will lay the foundation for his trial in the Senate.
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m drafting a reference set of articles of impeachment, and I’d like your help. I want to know what you want to include, both in terms of the charges and in terms of Trump’s conduct that bolsters those charges. I plan to publish the full set this Sunday.
Summary of Articles
I propose these articles of impeachment against Donald Trump:
Article I: Treason
Article II: Bribery
Article III: Abuse of Power
Article IV: Breach of Agreement
Article V: Obstruction of Congress
Article VI: Crimes Against Humanity
Article VII: Deceiving the American People
Why These Articles
I want and expect the Judiciary Committee to expand these articles to include every act where there is reasonable evidence Trump committed an impeachable offense. So, this is the minimal list, not a comprehensive detailing of every high crime. But when it goes to the floor of the House, it should be comprehensive, omitting no detail.
There are those who want to limit these articles to just one or two with the most hope of getting a conviction. This is a hopeless strategy, because Republicans have already told the public they have no intention of convicting Trump, no matter the proof or how outrageous the acts. Instead, it is important to bring a full set of charges, so that every jot, yea every tittle, is read into the record.
I plan to briefly describe these articles, but before I do I want to present my theory of the case. This is a narrative of what we believe happened that justifies impeachment. I’m presenting a single narrative that underlies all seven articles. This is the easiest way for the public to understand why impeachment is necessary and what justifies it.
Convincing the public is at the heart of impeaching Donald Trump. Numerous people have pointed out that impeachment is political. It shouldn’t be, but Republicans have made it political by refusing to look at even the most egregious and damaging conduct. So, a good narrative is important to successful impeachment.
Theory of the Case
This is what I believe happened:
Donald Trump has been compromised by one or more foreign governments. It seems almost certain the Russian government compromised him, and it appears likely the government of Turkey and maybe even the government of China have done so.
This explains why he withheld $391 million of security assistance duly authorized by Congress for Ukraine. Withholding this assistance aided Russia in its paramilitary invasion of Ukraine. It explains why he withdrew special operations forces from northern Syria. This aided Turkey in seizing a strip of land along the Syrian-Turkish border. It explains why he suspended joint military operations with South Korea. This relieved pressure on North Korea, an ally of China. Trump and his administration have offered no exculpatory evidence. There is no credible evidence he had a legitimate reason based on the interests of the United States to take any of these actions.
Each of these actions hurt the diplomatic and security interests of the United States.
But Donald Trump isn’t just adhering to our enemies. He’s also corrupt. This explains why he refused to meaningfully divest his business interests upon taking office. He has consistently acted to further those interests, even going so far as to demand a world summit take place at one of his properties. There are numerous examples of foreign and domestic entities taking services from the Trump organization, which further his private interests. In fact, the U.S. military has even paid substantial sums to rent rooms and take other services from the Trump organization.
When he needed to withhold security assistance from Ukraine, he saw an opportunity to get a personal benefit, as well. So, he demanded Ukraine launch politically-motivated investigations of alleged Democratic malfeasance, stories coming from the Russian intelligence services, as the price of releasing aid.
Donald Trump said in a campaign speech that we should use waterboarding against suspects in custody, and even do worse. His administration consistently fails to observe human rights in designing policy. For example, they created a policy of separating children from their parents for those seeking asylum, with the intent of creating cruel conditions for those asylum-seekers. Trump personally intervened to stop the discipline of a Navy Seal who was convicted of humiliating behavior with a dead captive. He is on record and has shown instances where he favors inhumane treatment of people as official government policy, a crime against humanity.
Trump has shown no interest in serving the American people or making sure the laws are faithfully executed. Instead, he’s willfully attempted to subvert the clear intention of the law. The agreement between the President and the people is that the President protect and defend the Constitution and ensure the laws are faithfully executed. Donald Trump has repeatedly violated that agreement.
And, when Congress subpoenaed documents and called witnesses in their oversight role, Trump has attempted to block nearly all testimony and the release of documents.
Finally, he is willfully deceiving the American people. In many cases, his lies are trivial and seem to be to protect himself. But where this becomes impeachable is where his deception threatens the American people, as it has with his lies about climate change. Trump has insisted scientific predictions of climate change are a hoax. The result of this, and policy based on this lie, is to reduce attempts to change the behavior that is causing the problem and prevent reasonable efforts to mitigate the damage that will result from global warming.
As a result of this conduct it is the duty of Congress to try Donald Trump in the Senate for the seven articles of impeachment summarized above, and, if found guilty of any of them, remove him from office.
That is the theory of the case.
Treason
In presenting the articles of impeachment yesterday, I got some push back that treason is not a suitable article. I want to make sure that I cover these objections and why I think they are invalid.
GrouchySquirrel objected that treason is “such an inflammatory charge that it’s a complete non-starter.”
Actually, the fact it is inflammatory is to our advantage. We are having trouble breaking through to people who don’t normally follow politics. It is precisely because “treason” is a sensational charge that it should be used.
Democratos notes that there is a statute defining treason. That’s interesting, but this is an impeachment, and the only thing that’s relevant is what’s in the Constitution. The Constitution defines treason this way:
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.
Article III, Section 3.
Trump’s behavior fits squarely within this definition. He has been adhering to our enemies, giving them aid and comfort. For example, withholding aid from Ukraine helped Russia by allowing it to continue its military pressure against Ukraine while the aid was withheld. Since Russia is an enemy and withholding the aid materially affects our security position, this is literally adhering to an enemy, giving them aid and comfort.
BuddhistMonkey claims Trump can’t be adhering to an enemy because we aren’t in a declared war. The serious problem with this argument is that the Constitution doesn’t say we need to be at war for some entity to be an enemy.
This is an unsupportable proposition anyway, because we are at war with various entities without those wars being declared. The U.S. has been under cyber-attack by Russia since at least 2015. Those attacks on our processes of election are intended to interfere with our sovereignty, and as such they are worthy of a declaration of war.
We’ve fought maybe a dozen wars since the end of World War II without declaring any of them. We fought a bloody, three-year war with North Korea without it ever being declared. No one would claim this wasn’t a war. The U.S. suffered (officially) over 33,000 battle deaths, among about 3 million deaths attributed to the war on all sides. And we are still technically at war with North Korea. We signed an armistice that ended the hot war, but there was never a peace treaty.
Congress never declared war in Korea, although they allocated funds to fight it.
So, the fact there’s no declared war is irrelevant to whether a president can be charged as a traitor. Trump is eligible to be accused of treason, and his conduct supports such a charge.
Beyond that, the right wing has consistently accused liberals of treason. By the rules of their game, it’s entirely right to make that accusation when the evidence supports it. If nothing else, it will give us the pleasure of poetic justice.
Description of Articles of Impeachment
I refer you to yesterday’s piece, Preparation of Articles of Impeachment, for descriptions of the articles. Please take a look and add your thoughts to the comments here.