-Published: Thursday, December 5, 2019-
3 US constitutional scholars contend Trump has committed impeachable offenses
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Three U.S. constitutional scholars told Congress Wednesday that President Donald Trump committed impeachable offenses by pushing Ukraine to open investigations to benefit him politically, reported Voice of America on Wednesday.
Harvard law professor Noah Feldman told lawmakers that Trump, by "corruptly soliciting" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to open an investigation of one of his chief 2020 Democratic rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden, "has clearly committed high crimes and misdemeanors," the standard set in the U.S. Constitution for impeachment of a president.
Pamela Karlan, a Stanford law professor, said a U.S. president should resist foreign intervention in an American election, not invite it. She called Trump's request to Zelenskiy an "especially serious abuse of power."
In his opening statement, University of North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhardt told the House Judiciary Committee, “If Congress fails to impeach here, then the impeachment process has lost all meaning, and, along with that, our Constitution’s carefully crafted safeguards against the establishment of a king on American soil. No one, not even the president, is above the law."
Republicans supporting Trump called Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor who said he voted against Trump in 2016. But Turley said there was a "paucity of evidence" supporting Trump's impeachment and "abundance of anger" by Democrats aimed at removing Trump from office. Turley said Trump's late July call with Zelenskiy was not "perfect," as Trump has contended, but not grounds to impeach him.
The Judiciary panel's hearing was the next step in House Democrats' effort to impeach the country's 45th president, only the fourth time in the country's 243-year history that a U.S. leader has faced a formal impeachment proceeding.
The constitutional scholars recalled the history from more than two centuries ago when the country's founding fathers wrote into the Constitution that presidents could be impeached and removed from office if lawmakers decide they have committed "“treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." Feldman, Karlan and Gerhardt all said that Trump had met the criteria for impeachment laid out in the Constitution, describing his actions as an "abuse of power."
Feldman said if Trump is not held to account for his alleged offenses, "We no longer live in a democracy."
Turley called the case against Trump "the narrowest impeachment in history" and was being conducted by Democrats in an "incredibly short" period of time. The lead Republican on the Judiciary panel, Congressman Doug Collins, asked, "Why the rush?"
Collins accused Democrats of trying to complete the impeachment process before the country turns its attention to the congressional and presidential election campaigns in 2020, when Trump is seeking re-election. Trump's lawyers declined an invitation to participate in Wednesday's hearing, while retaining the right to appear at any later sessions in the coming weeks.
At the end of the day, however, both sides stuck to their talking points. Judiciary Committee chair Jerrold Nadler again accused Trump of asking a “foreign government to intervene in our elections, then got caught, then obstructed the investigators twice.” The constitution, he said, "has a solution for a president who places his personal or political interests" above those of the country.
More updated information on president's Trump alleged impeachable offenses case, can be reached at VOA site.
|
|
