Kuttner: Start Trump’s impeachment NOW
Robert Kuttner, editor of The American Prospect, proposes
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a citizens’ impeachment inquiry, to begin on Trump’s first day in office.
The inquiry should keep a running dossier, and forward updates at least weekly to the House Judiciary Committee. There will be no lack of evidence.
The materials should be made public via a website. The inquiry should be conducted by a distinguished panel whose high-mindedness and credentials are, well, unimpeachable.
There needs to be a parallel public campaign, pressing for an official investigation.
And before you say “pipe dream,” consider this:
[H]ere is something concrete―and more realistic than it may seem.
Trump has already committed grave misdeeds of the kind that the Constitutional founders described as high crimes and misdemeanors.
With his commingling of his official duties and his personal enrichment, Trump will be in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which unambiguously prohibits any person holding public office from profiting from gifts or financial benefits from “any king, prince or Foreign state.”
Trump, who has entangled his business interests with his political connections at home and abroad, has already declared his contempt for these Constitutional protections.
He declared, “The law is totally on my side, meaning the president can’t have a conflict of interest.”
Oh, yes he can, and this president will.
Kuttner also believes
Trump will very likely use agencies of government to punish political enemies. The Articles of Impeachment against Richard Nixon explicitly cited Nixon’s political misuse of the CIA, the FBI and the IRS.
It’s worth recalling the Nixon chronology.
In two years, the idea of impeaching Nixon went from loony-left fantasy, to mainstream, to inevitable.
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