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Memories of the 28th Century

High Crimes

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It has come to my attention that some people do not believe that Donald J. Trump has done anything for which he should be impeached, convicted, and thrown out of office. Maybe those people are confused by the phrase used in the Constitution for reasons for impeachment and conviction: “high crimes and misdemeanors”. That isn’t how it would be put these days, but high crimes means felonies or major crimes, but the term misdemeanor has not significantly changed over the years, and it still means lesser crimes. People should understand that high crimes as mentioned in the Constitution are simply major crimes. It doesn’t men that the crimes need to be specific to the office, just that they be major crimes, such as soliciting a bribe or misuse of public office (or malfeasance of office), and relevant misdemeanors could include lying to the American (as reads one of the counts on the bill of impeachment for Richard Nixon). But any minor crime might be used in a bill of impeachment.

Maybe they think that only formal abuse of his power as president can be a reason for impeachment. If that is the case, then soliciting a bribe to get him to do what he is required by law to do should fit that bill, and that is exactly what he did in the Ukraine matter; he asked the president of Ukraine to do some political dirty work for him to get Trump to turn over funds that Congress had given to Ukraine. By that single act, Trump failed to uphold his oath of office, and he solicited a bribe.

The have been other criminal acts that Trump has done since he took office, including trying to rule by edict, but the Ukraine matter is sufficient by itself, but for good measure the House can obstruction of justice and lying to the American people. If Trump truly does not understand that his actions are "high crimes and misdemeanors", then perhaps he should be thrown out of office under the Twenty-fifth Amendment because he is mentally incompetent to carry out the office of president.

Other possible articles of impeachment include violation of the Constitution's emoluments clause, for which there is ample evidence. And of course, lying to the American people and lying to Congress could be added as misdemeanors, and there are other possible charges, but the Ukraine matter is sufficient.


If you search, then you will find other lists of possible charges. This is one such list.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/demo...ry?id=66822206

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