New Trump allegations echo what drove Nixon from office
Updated Jan. 19 with the Special Counsel’s statement.
A new report that Donald Trump told long-time lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about his planned Trump Tower Moscow project could set the process of impeachment in motion, if verified.
Last November, Cohen confessed to lying to Congress about the Trump firm’s real estate negotiations in Moscow, namely that they went on longer than he had previously said, he told a federal court in Manhattan. That lie was at Trump’s request, Buzzfeed reported late yesterday (Jan. 17). Cohen “told the special counsel [Robert Mueller] that after the election, the president personally instructed him to lie—by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did—in order to obscure Trump’s involvement,” according to BuzzFeed.
Even as Trump told “told the public he had no business deals with Russia… Trump and his children Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. received regular, detailed updates about the real estate development from Cohen,” the Buzzfeed report adds, citing anonymous federal law enforcement officials.
In a rare statement, the FBI Special Counsel’s office disputed part of the report on Jan. 19, but didn’t specify which part. “BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate,” the spokesman said.
The House Intelligence Committee is investigating the allegations in the BuzzFeed report, committee chair Adam Schiff, the California Democrat, said after the story was published.
The allegation that the President of the United States may have suborned perjury before our committee in an effort to curtail the investigation and cover up his business dealings with Russia is among the most serious to date. We will do what’s necessary to find out if it’s true. https://t.co/GljBAFqOjh
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) January 18, 2019
A bill to impeach the president must start in the House, which is now controlled by Democrats, and only needs a simple majority to pass. (Democratic House members have already introduced several bills to impeach Trump, which until now did not pass.) Then the Senate would need to hear an impeachment trial, in which evidence is laid out by House judiciary committee members against the president, and the Senate would need a to vote by a two-thirds majority to convict. Republicans control the Senate by 53 to 47 seats, and have been reluctant to censure the president so far, but that could change if the report is true.
William Barr, the president’s pick for attorney general, is among those who have been unequivocal in saying that a sitting US president can be impeached for obstructing justice. “Obviously,” Barr wrote in a memo to the Justice Department questioning the scope of Mueller’s investigation, “the president… can commit obstruction by sabotaging a proceedings truth-finding function.” If, for example, he “knowingly induces a witness to change testimony, [he] can be impeached.” He gave similar testimony to the Senate:
Klobuchar to Barr:
“The President persuading a person to commit perjury would be obstruction, right?”
Barr: “Yes”
Barr should now be asked if Trump can be impeached, and not appointed if says no.
pic.twitter.com/lJYIWTQ2Gw— Orrite Then (@OrRite_Then) January 18, 2019
Mueller’s report into potential collusion between Trump and the Russian government is expected as soon as February.
Obstruction of justice was the very first reason that the House Judiciary Committee voted to pursue impeachment proceedings against then-president Richard Nixon in July 1974, which ultimately resulted in his resignation days later. Here’s the full text of the articles of impeachment adopted by the committee:
RESOLVED, That Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanours, and that the following articles of impeachment to be exhibited to the Senate:
ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT EXHIBITED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN THE NAME OF ITSELF AND OF ALL OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AGAINST RICHARD M. NIXON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT OF ITS IMPEACHMENT AGAINST HIM FOR HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANOURS.
ARTICLE ONE (Obstruction of Justice)
In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice, in that:
On June 17, 1972, and prior thereto, agents of the Committee for the Re-election of the President committed unlawful entry of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, District of Columbia, for the purpose of securing political intelligence. Subsequent thereto, Richard M. Nixon, using the powers of his high office, engaged personally and through his close subordinates and agents, in a course of conduct or plan designed to delay, impede, and obstruct the investigation of such illegal entry; to cover up, conceal and protect those responsible; and to conceal the existence and scope of other unlawful covert activities.
The means used to implement this course of conduct or plan included one or more of the following:
In all of this, Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
Wherefore Richard M. Nixon, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.
(Adopted by the House Judiciary Committee on a 27-11 vote)
ARTICLE TWO (Abuse of Power)
Using the powers of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in disregard of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has repeatedly engaged in conduct violating the constitutional rights of citizens, impairing the due and proper administration of justice and the conduct of lawful inquiries, or contravening the laws governing agencies of the executive branch and the purposed of these agencies.
This conduct has included one or more of the following:
In all of this, Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
Wherefore Richard M. Nixon, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.
(Adopted by the House Judiciary Committee on a 28-10 vote)
ARTICLE THREE (Contempt of Congress)
In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, contrary to his oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has failed without lawful cause or excuse to produce papers and things as directed by duly authorized subpoenas issued by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives on April 11, 1974, May 15, 1974, May 30, 1974, and June 24, 1974, and willfully disobeyed such subpoenas. The subpoenaed papers and things were deemed necessary by the Committee in order to resolve by direct evidence fundamental, factual questions relating to Presidential direction, knowledge or approval of actions demonstrated by other evidence to be substantial grounds for impeachment of the President. In refusing to produce these papers and things Richard M. Nixon, substituting his judgment as to what materials were necessary for the inquiry, interposed the powers of the Presidency against the the lawful subpoenas of the House of Representatives, thereby assuming to himself functions and judgments necessary to the exercise of the sole power of impeachment vested by the Constitution in the House of Representatives.
In all of this, Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
Wherefore, Richard M. Nixon, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.
(Adopted by the House Judiciary Committee on a 21-17 vote)
Nixon resigned from office on Aug. 8, 1974, after it became clear that the full House would vote to impeach him, and that he didn’t have enough support in the Senate to remain in office.
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