Many posts have discussed impeachment, including the impeachment of former officials.
At The Bulwark, Jill Lawrence compares Trump to presidents who faced articles of impeachment:
Richard Nixon’s central role in covering up the 1972 Watergate scandal, in which Nixon-campaign spies broke into and bugged the Democratic National Committee office in the Watergate complex in Washington, led two years later to the first and so far only presidential resignation. The House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment charging Nixon with obstructing its Watergate inquiry, abusing his power by using law enforcement and intelligence agencies to investigate his enemies, and refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas. Nixon resigned before a full House vote, after Republican senators told him the Senate would likely convict him of the charges.
Does Trump check any of these boxes? For sure, and right out in the open, starting with his executive order this month that “directs” Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate ActBlue for possible foreign or dummy contributions (but did not include WinRed, the GOP counterpart, as the AP noted). Trump has also gone after law firms he sees as enemies—threatening to cancel federal contracts, suspend security clearances, and bar lawyers from all federal buildings because he doesn’t like their clients or their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. He’s unleashed similar attacks—and punishment—on universities as well.
Has Trump obstructed justice since taking office this year? It’s more like flouting justice and ignoring the courts. He and his team, including Elon Musk, have shut down investigations, slow-walked or withheld information, and ignored court orders, not least regarding deportations that have sent three children who are U.S. citizens to Honduras and roughly 175 Venezuelans with no criminal record to a nightmare Salvadoran prison, all without due process.
As for compliance with subpoenas, Trump “directed Executive Branch agencies, offices, and officials not to comply” with House subpoenas in the chamber’s 2019 impeachment inquiry, and early signs this time around are not encouraging.
Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 for lying under oath to a grand jury and for obstructing justice. The charges stemmed from an independent counsel investigation into an Arkansas real estate deal involving the Clintons and morphed into Kenneth Starr’s graphic report on Clinton’s affair with a young White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The full House approved two of four impeachment articles, but Clinton was acquitted in a Senate trial.
Has Trump lied about sex or covering it up? E. Jean Carroll has accused him of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s in a department store dressing room, and filed two civil defamation suits against him. Trump denied in a deposition and in brief testimony last year that he had ever met her, but two juries have found him liable and courts have awarded Carroll tens of millions in damages. Trump has repeatedly denied he had sex with porn actress Stormy Daniels, but he did not take the stand in last year’s hush-money trial. Daniels testified in detail about the alleged encounter, and Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testified that Trump signed off on all aspects of schemes to bury stories about extramarital affairs. The jury convicted Trump of 34 felonies in connection with falsifying business records to disguise the payoffs.
