House Democrats are launching Phase Two of their impeachment case on Thursday: the constitutional argument for why President Donald Trump should be removed from office.
The House’s seven impeachment managers spent all day Wednesday piecing together their voluminous and complex case that Trump abused his power by pressuring Ukraine to investigate his Democratic rivals — and then tried to cover it up. Now, they’ll lay out the reasons they believe he should be ousted and barred from serving in federal office ever again.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the House’s lead impeachment manager, indicated that his team will seek to apply the facts of the case to the constitutional framework for impeachment — including an argument for why Trump’s alleged misconduct meets the threshold for “high crimes and misdemeanors” as outlined in the Constitution.
Thursday’s presentation will focus on the first article of impeachment against Trump, centering on his alleged abuses of the powers of the presidency. Schiff and his team are likely to delve into the second article — obstruction of Congress — on Friday.
The arguments will closely mirror those laid out by the House Judiciary Committee last month, when constitutional law experts called by Democrats made the case that Trump’s conduct clearly crossed the threshold into impeachable territory.
Democrats will likely push back against claims from Trump’s lawyers that an impeachable offense must be a statutory crime, such as bribery or obstruction of justice. The president’s allies have harangued Democrats for impeaching Trump without accusing him of a crime, arguing that the two articles of impeachment are legally defective and set a dangerous precedent for future presidential impeachments.
Trump brought Alan Dershowitz, a criminal defense attorney and former Harvard law professor, onto his legal team to push back against the idea that a president can be removed from office without being accused of a statutory crime. Specifically, Dershowitz has said that impeachable conduct should be “criminal-like.”
Democrats may even cite the one Republican witness from the December hearing, Jonathan Turley, who was critical of the case against Trump but did not dispute that “abuse of power” is an impeachable offense, even if the president hasn’t broken any laws. Turley handed Democrats ammunition earlier this week when he wrote an op-ed criticizing Trump’s defense team for suggesting there must be a criminal violation to justify impeachment.
Schiff highlighted Turley’s position during his own remarks on the trials’ first working day Tuesday, suggesting Trump had to turn to Dershowitz rather than a mainstream constitutional law expert to make the case.
“He couldn't even go to Jonathan Turley, their expert in the House, for an opinion. No, they had to go outside of these experts, outside of constitutional law, to a criminal defense lawyer and professor,” Schiff said. “And why? Because they can't contest the facts.”
Democrats are likely to lean more heavily on the testimony of the three constitutional law professors who argued that Trump unequivocally committed "high crimes."
“The president’s serious misconduct, including bribery, soliciting a personal favor from a foreign leader in exchange for his exercise of power, and obstructing justice and Congress,” said Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina law professor, during the House’s impeachment hearings, “are worse than the misconduct of any prior president.”
Senate Republicans so far have appeared largely unmoved by Democrats’ case against Trump and a vote to convict seems unlikely. But if they did, a separate vote would be required to also bar Trump from again serving in federal office.
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January 23, 2020 at 11:27PM
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Democrats hammer constitutional case for Trump's removal - POLITICO
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