Donald Trump Impeachment Articles Drafted By ‘The New York Times’
On Wednesday The New York Times published an article written by Ian Prasad Philbrick, which outlines a roadmap to President Donald Trump’s impeachment using an analysis of the articles of impeachment that were used against former Presidents Richard Nixon in 1974 and Bill Clinton in 1998.
Fox News reports that the piece was released amid House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s continued effort to reconcile the various opinions on impeachment within the Democratic party. Although Pelosi is currently urging caution and patience when it comes to impeachment plans for Trump, the Times appears to want to get ahead of the game.
Philbrick edited the impeachment articles used against Nixon and Clinton by removing and adding passages until they matched Trump’s conduct.
“Impeachment is often said to be a political process. But when you assess Mr. Trump’s conduct by the bar for impeachment set by past Democratic and Republican lawmakers for past presidents of both parties, the results are striking.”
Philbrick says that Trump’s behavior mirrors Nixon’s close enough that it fits well into the first and third Nixon articles that addressed obstruction of justice. He compares Nixon’s interference with the federal investigation into the Watergate break-in with Trump’s interference with Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
In Opinion
Ian Prasad Philbrick writes, "There is no question that by the standards for high crimes and misdemeanors applied to past presidents in living memory, Donald J. Trump has committed impeachable offenses."https://t.co/W9ZQ1ecoKf
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 6, 2019
But when it comes to Clinton, Philbrick claims that just the third impeachment article is comparable to Trump’s actions.
“The obstruction case laid out against President Clinton was largely based on his behavior toward witnesses in the investigation into his conduct,” he said.
“As you can see from our rendering of a Trump indictment, Mr. Trump arguably took more extensive steps than Mr. Clinton did to thwart investigators”
Philbrick noted that, in addition to interfering with witnesses and encouraging false testimony, Trump also attempted to “limit the scope of Mr. Mueller’s investigation and have the special counsel removed.”
In conclusion, Philbrick says that Trump has most definitely committed impeachable offenses — at least compared to the standards for high crimes and misdemeanors applied to Nixon and Clinton.
As The Inquisitr already reported, Pelosi used a Tuesday meeting on Capitol Hill with top House Democrats to reveal that impeachment isn’t her end-goal — she wants Trump “in prison.” Pelosi’s comment mirrors her original plan, which is to defeat Trump in 2020 and begin investigations into potential criminal behavior.
But many within Pelosi’s party are reportedly frustrated with this plan and believe that Mueller’s surprise press conference was a veiled call for Trump’s impeachment. Regardless, Pelosi claims that to impeach Trump, there must be both public and bipartisan support.
