HoltesThoughts: Impeachment Articles

The Trump administration is accused of many crimes.

List of Article Subjects

Each of these articles should have multiple counts when completed, along with a statement of why those are criminal and/or impeachable. Each Article should describe:

A. Criminal or constitutionally abusive Actions.
B. Evidence of Criminal, lawless or abusive ongoing Intent.
C. Evidence of abuse of power and harm to individuals or country.
D. Description of the laws or constitutional requirements violated.
E. Remedy for these violations.
Each Article should provide:

Summary list

Trump Organization Criminal Behavior in using the Corrupt Trump Organization to commit Campaign Violations, using extortion and blackmail to silence critics, and lying to Congress to cover up those violations.
Incapacity/Negligence: He has failed to execute faithfully the laws of the country.
Perfidy: Abused his power in cruel and Genocidal manner.
Fraud: Abused the Trust of his Voters by continual lies and frauds.
Violating Spirit of USC 30121: Solicited illegal contributions of propaganda and interference from foreign nationals and governments alike. Defending and encouraging these purveyors of propaganda and their assaults on our system of elections.
Emoluments: Sought emoluments from Citizens, Foreign persons and Citizens and engaged in policies that reflect those emoluments and not the best interests of the Country.
Corruption: Created a culture of corruption and abuse of power in his administration.
Obstructing of Justice detailed in the Mueller Report
Continual Obstruction of Justice via stonewalling and misuse of Executive Privilege to obstruct congress.

I'm going to move the individual articles to separate posts. and then this page will have references to them. This is too much for a single post.

General Justification

The Trump administration is at war with the very progressive notions of liberal democracy as developed in the 20th century. He ignores the constitution, he seeks to:

Rule by fiat/decree,
He seeks impunity to ignore or violate established law,
He has upended established laws on immigration, asylum seeking and immigration, causing unimaginable suffering to women and children and families of people seeking refuge in our country.
He obstructs investigations into his administrations conduct, large and small.
He has openly stated an intention to rule beyond the limits established by the constitution.
He hired as AG a person who believes in the Unitary executive theory of a dictatorship.
If not impeached Trump's falsehoods and decrees will become part of US law and precedent.

Impeachment as a Permanent Record

The process of impeachment has to be part of this corrective. In a previous post I explained why I believe the House should impeach Trump even if he loses reelection. I believe this is necessary to prevent him using the pardon power to obstruct justice. I believe that the impeachment process can and should be a prophylactic:

“The purpose of Impeachment hearings is not merely to focus on the lawbreaking of these officials, which is obvious, but to stop them from committing high crimes and misdemeanors or the President from using his Pardon Power to help them get away with it.”

I believe that impeachment articles should be voted with the understanding that they are a permanent document and that the Senate will not convict. Therefor the House should make a case with a "preponderance of evidence" sufficient to convince any reasonable person hearing it.

Why the House must invoke its impeachment powers

Why Congress must impeach Trump

For that reason, even if, especially if, Trump loses reelection he should be impeached along with his criminal officers. Along with those impeachments congress should pass a list of censure and sense of congress resolutions to rebuke the dictatorial assertions of the Trump administration. Congress can't pass ex post facto laws or punish people beyond impeachment for offenses. Moreover, if impeachment is to succeed the articles and their counts will have to provide a preponderance of evidence that a crime was committed, even if other offenses were not technically legal when committed. For them Congress needs resolutions and new laws.

Setting Right What is Wrong

The courts are for crimes that can be proven in a court. Elections are for determining which way the country is going. However, it is the job of the legislature to set policy, legislate law and oversee policy. The executive has the job of carrying out policy, not setting it without input from the legislature. The Judiciary has the job of affirming or condemning notions that violate the letter and spirit of our national charter. The Legislature has the power of legislation to set such policy and limit the executive, define the law, as well of impeachment to remove executive officers who abuse their power.

Rebuking Tyranny

Trump, with his "unitary state" notions, pursuit of impunity and willful disregard of the letter and spirit of the constitution is abusing his power and seeking to use it for personal gain. Trump has misused his powers for personal gain, often in a manner that violates the spirit of the constitution and that had been previously enforced by norms and expectations, rather than code. Using power for Personal Gain is Tyranny, and has been since the dawn of time. John Locke stated this in his twin treatises on Government.

“cleansing...and restoring integrity”

Impeachment articles should be about more than simply punishing transgressions. It should also contain legislation that will clarify the constitution, define basic principles and rights, set right faulty claims that lead to, or enable, tyranny and injustice, and set right the comity and good government of the country. It is not enough to remove miscreants from office if the rules and principles they are violating are not reestablished and clarified. The constitution spells forth that impeachment is for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” things like gross violations of the public trust, dereliction of duty, abuse of power and attempts to take onto the executive judicial and legislative powers. In a sense impeachment is necessitated when someone is violating rules and norms. If those rules and norms were properly codified the courts would be able to rectify the situation. thus when Lindsey Graham said in 1999:

“You don't even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitutional republic,... Impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office”Cleanse Comments

Therefore the necessity for impeachment, sometimes means that Congress has been neglecting its article one powers, delegating too many of them to the executive, or failing to produce the necessary structures to enforce them.

The Product of Impeachment should be Reforms

Thus the product of an impeachment inquiry should not be merely impeachment articles but resolutions affirming, defining and clarifying the clear principles of government that were being corrupted when the Officer transgressed. Impeachment articles should contain clear statements of basic principle, illuminating the Constitution, both for what the Executive and the Legislature should do. Impeachment should affirm the clear purposes of the constitution abjure, renounce, condemn and repeal powers and behaviors that were delegated to the Executive for a limited purpose and are now being abused, or that we feel were usurped by the executive and are being used tyrannically. These votes are not only to impeach a bad president but to restate the principles upon which our country was founded.

Purpose of this Post

I like to use my blog as a place to put ideas I'd like input on or that I'm studying and working out myself. So I've created this post, as a draft that I can come back to and update. I can't seem to keep up with all the counts that ought to be impeachment articles, so I'm publishing it even though it is a draft and everything past the "More" input is a work in progress. I started this post last year and it's been draft too long. It remains draft. It's a mock up of the articles I feel we should be impeaching Trump on. I will updated it further.

Help me finish this. Then help me get Congress to vote on something similar.

Draft Summary

Congress voted articles of impeachment in 2018. So some of the material here from Congress.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-resolution/705/text

Resolution Summary Draft

Donald J Trump has not only committed and boasted of his High Crimes and Misdemeanors his actions reflect his “Incapacity, Negligence, and Perfidy” [Cato].

Article 1 – Incapacity/Negligence: failure to execute faithfully the laws of the Country.
Article 2 – Perfidy:Donald Trump's cruel abuse of Power, engaging in Cruel and Genocidal Actions.
Article 3 – Fraud: Abused his Trust as President by continual lies and frauds
Article 4 – USC30121: Illegal contributions and working with foreign powers to win election.
Article 5 – Emoluments; Soliciting and Taking Emoluments in defiance of the Constitution.
Article 6 – Corruption; Bringing a corrupt regime to government with corrupt officers.
Article 7 – Obstruction of Justice As Detailed in the Mueller Report.
Article 8 – Stonewalling and misuse of Executive Privilege.

Executive Summary

However, we believe that impeachment should be reserved for the kinds of crimes that call into question the very continuation of our republic as a well run Federation with Democratic controls on the three branches. We believe that impeachment also requires a consensus and that it should not be undertaken likely. The president has abused his power, violated the emoluments clause, engaged in corrupt behavior himself and brought in a corrupt organization of leutenants who have likewise abused their power. He has called into question the basic principles of a republic that “no person should be above the law.” We believe that it is time that we uphold this consensus and restore integrity to our United States Federation and its system. We believe that we have presented a preponderance of evidence and that that meets the impeachment standard. It is resolved that each of these articles of impeachment, contempt and censure be passed.

Article 1 – Incapacity/Negligence: failure to execute faithfully the laws of the Country

We hold that Donald J Trump and his principle officers have failed to execute faithfully the laws of the Country or to uphold the Constitution in a principled fashion. In 2018, articles of impeachment were introduced that stated:

“In his capacity as President of the United States, unmindful of the high duties of his high office, of the dignity and proprieties thereof, and of the harmony, and respect necessary for stability within the society of the United States, Donald John Trump has with his bigoted statements done more than simply insult individuals and groups of Americans, he has harmed the American society by attempting to convert, or converting, his bigoted statements into United States policy and by associating the presidency and the people of the United States with bigotry, violence and abuses of power, on one or more of the following occasions:”

They then listed a series of infractions:

Executive Order 13769 on January 27 2017, which sought to prevent the immigration of anyone who is muslim, solely on their religious affiliations and country of origin.
July 26, 2017 attack on Transgender right to serve in the military of the United States.
August 15, 2017, defense of Charlottesville Virginia Nazis.
January 11, 2018, Ending DACA and targeting minority group origin immigrants for Deportation.

After detailing these incidents they concluded:

“In all of this, the aforementioned Donald John Trump has, by his statements, brought the high office of President of the United States in contempt, ridicule, disgrace and disrepute, has sown discord among the people of the United States, has demonstrated that he is unfit to be President, and has betrayed his trust as President of the United States to the manifest injury of the people of the United States, and has committed a high misdemeanor in office.” [115th Congress HR705]

Since HR 115, Trump has converted those statements into policies and government action. Furthermore, he has displayed a contempt for his office by his actions and inactions:

He has “visited his golf clubs more than 150 times in his first official year in office, and at least 77 times in his second year in office.” NBC tracking
He plays Golf nearly weekly. As of June 15th 2019 Trump had played 86 games of Golf on his own properties, [Golf Count] This in itself is not impeachable but he promised he would be too busy to play golf during his run.
He has illegally used his properties as a means to solicit and receive emoluments from people seeking business with the United States, including foreign powers.
He has hired cabinet members and officers who behaved lawlessly and created scandal for him. Many were forced to depart under cloud of scandal, but some continue in office despite recommendations they be fired for their offenses.
He has fired many of his cabinet members arbitrarily. Fired the FBI director for "the Russian Thing," See Article 7.
He has replaced those officers, in many cases, with either sychophants such as William Barr, or "Acting" Directors. The result is a government that is unable to perform its major functions.
He has arbitrarily blocked legislation and contributed to stalemate between Republicans and Democrats, with his actions, vetoes and refusal to behave in a consistent manner on legislation.
He has obstructed justice by obstructing investigations into his own and his cabinet members behavior. See Article 7.

For all of these reasons we believe that Trump has gone beyond "high misdemeanors" and is guilty of high crimes and gross abuse of power. We hold Donald J. Trump and his principle officers in Censure, in Contempt of Congress and herein vote this article of Impeachment. We concur with the sense of the sense of the 115th Congress authors that:

“In all of this, the aforementioned Donald John Trump has, by his statements, brought the high office of President of the United States in contempt, ridicule, disgrace and disrepute, has sown discord among the people of the United States, has demonstrated that he is unfit to be President, and has betrayed his trust as President of the United States to the manifest injury of the people of the United States, and has committed a high misdemeanor in office.”

For these corrupt and venal actions we conclude that:

“Therefore, Donald John Trump by causing such harm to the society of the United States is unfit to be President and warrants impeachment, trial, and removal from office.”

and we further hold that Donald Trump and his principle officers be Censured and held in Contempt of Congress. Censure, Contempt of Congress and herein vote this article of Impeachment. We hold that Donald John Trump by causing such harm to the society of the United States is unfit to be President and warrants impeachment, trial, and removal from office.

Appendix to Article One

Unilateral imposition of a shutdown of immigration from Muslim Nations

“On January 27, 2017, Donald John Trump issued Executive Order 13769 providing for a partial shutdown of immigration from mainly Muslim countries to fulfill a bigoted campaign promise that read as follows: “DONALD J. TRUMP STATEMENT ON PREVENTING MUSLIM IMMIGRATION (New York, NY) December 7th, 2015—Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what's going on,” thereby attempting to convert a bigoted campaign promise into United States policy, associating the presidency and the people of the United States with bigotry, thereby casting contempt upon Muslims, inciting hate and hostility, and sowing discord among the people of the United States on the basis of religion.”

He has since then refined his executive orders so that the courts have upheld them claiming that they only need to uphold the letter of the law not its substance. And added additional crimes referenced in Article 2.

Attacking Transgender Service Personnel

On July 26, 2017, Donald John Trump made a public statement substantially as follows: “After consulting with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” thereby attempting to convert his bigoted statement into United States policy, associating the presidency and the people of the United States with bigotry, thereby casting contempt on transgender individuals, inciting hate and hostility, and sowing discord among the people of the United States on the basis of gender.

Defending Charlottesville Nazis

On August 15, 2017, Donald John Trump made a widely-published statement characterizing a group of anti-Semites, bigots, racists, white nationalists, and Ku Klux Klansmen who rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia, as “very fine people,” thereby associating the presidency and the people of the United States with bigotry.

On October 7, 2017, hate groups returned to Charlottesville, Virginia, at the statue of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, chanting “You will not replace us!” after having chanted in their August Charlottesville rally that “Jews will not replace us!”. Since this event on October 7, the President has made widely-published statements about many issues, including the National Football League, but has not made one widely-published statement condemning the hate groups for returning to the place where an innocent person lost her life at the hands of hate.

Targeting minority Immigrants brought here as children for Deportation

On January 11, 2018, Donald John Trump held a meeting with a bipartisan group of Congressional leaders that focused primarily on legislation that would provide a statutory protected status for individuals brought to the United States without documentation. At this meeting, as has been widely-published, Donald John Trump made references to people from s-h-i-t-h-o-l-e (or s-h-i-t-h-o-u-s-e) countries. He also questioned why we need more Haitians or people from African countries, proclaiming that we should take them out. Donald John Trump then suggested that Norwegians were better suited to be immigrants to this country, thereby casting contempt on citizens and noncitizens who were welcomed here by previous Presidents due to natural disaster and civil unrest, thereby attempting to convert his bigoted statements into United States policy, associating the presidency and the people of the United States with bigotry, inciting hate and hostility, and sowing discord among the people of the United States on the basis of national origin.

These efforts are clearly illegal in International Law:

The Refugee Convention, 26...requires that:

"[t]he Contracting States shall apply the provisions of this Convention to refugees without discrimination as to race, religion or country of origin," [Paper]

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, states that:

“[a]ll persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law." [Paper]

He has since expanded this effort as detailed in Article 2

Article 2: – Perfidy:Donald Trump's cruel abuse of Power, engaging in Cruel and Genocidal Actions

In his capacity as President of the United States, unmindful of the high duties of his high office, of the dignity and proprieties thereof, of international and human rights law, recklessly damaging the harmony, and respect necessary for stability within the society of the United States and between the United States and other Nations. Donald John Trump has escalated from racist and bigoted speech to incitement and efforts to build concentration camps for immigrants and commit genocide. He has separated parents from children, caused the death of migrants both in his custody and by his policies preventing people from seeking asylum, and violated laws requiring humane treatment of people in the custody of the United States.

A Denial of Asylum and Family Separation

Donald Trump unilaterally ended what he called "catch and release" and began a policy of family separations aimed at Children of migrants who had legally applied for refugee status but were deemed to have broken immigration law by entering the country in an unauthorized manner. The children were in some cases put in cages, were separated from parents and cruelly treated with minimum care and no parental or emotional contact. When ordered by a Judge to be reunited with their parents the Department of Homeland Security, following Donald Trump's executive orders, claimed they had lost the identifications necessary to reunite those children. Donald Trump has shown no remorse for these acts and instead used the crisis he created at the border by separating children and blocking access to asylum remedies, to declare an emergency at the border so that he could start building his wall using funds intended for humane purposes. He is now separating families at the border and concentrating them into concentration camps.

These are a violation of national and international laws and norms. Therefore we assert that Donald J Trump and his principle officers and subordinates in the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and those in Housing and Human Services who aided them are guilty of high crimes, gross and genocidal behavior and have committed abuse of power. We hold Donald J. Trump and his principle officers; in Censure, Contempt of Congress and herein vote this article of Impeachment. We hold that Donald John Trump by causing such harm to the society of the United States is unfit to be President and warrants impeachment, trial, and removal from office. We further censure, rebuke and order the repeal of his cruel policies of family separation and zero tolerance applied to asylum seekers. We hold these behaviors to be a gross abuse of power and illegal. We believe that on this count alone Donald J Trump and his principle officers in the Department of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services should be removed from office.

Article 3: – Fraud: Abused his Trust as President by continual lies and frauds

We hold Trump in contempt of congress and of United States laws, for his continual misrepresentation of facts, his lies and frauds. In addition to the many lies and misrepresentations he has made over the air, which we count at at least 9,179 (Vanity Fair) or 10,000+ whoppers just since taking the oath of office. We have the example of his misrepresentations of his finances, which constitute several types of fraud. From Vanity Fair, a sample of the lies:

“In a 2011 document known as a “Statement of Financial Condition,” Trump purported to own 55 home lots ready to sell for at least $3 million apiece at his Southern California golf course. Yet, in reality, he’d only been zoned for 31, thereby overstating his future revenue by a cool $72-odd million. In a document from 2012, he tacked on an extra 800 acres to the size of his roughly 1,200 acre Virginia vineyard. In 2013, in an attempt to bolster his bid for the Buffalo Bills, a two-page “Summary of Net Worth” conveniently omitted his ownership of two hotels, in Chicago and Las Vegas, meaning, per the Post, “that some of Trump’s actual debt load was hidden from anyone reading the statement.” [Vanity Fair]

Therefore we hold that Donald J Trump should be censured, impeached and referred for prosecution after he leave office, for those of his lies that violate the law. And he should be removed for office for his brazen abuses of trust and is willful refusal to obey the Constitutional Precept that he “faithfully execute the office” and “preserve, protect and defend the constitution.” We respectfully submit to the Senate the full list of Trump's frauds and misrepresentation as documentation for these high crimes, committed both before he ran for President and while in office.

This would be followed with a long list of his income tax, wire-fraud, bank-fraud, etc.... allegations and documentation.

Article 4 – USC30121: Illegal contributions and working with foreign powers to win election.

Donald Trump has deliberately and with intent and forethought sought help from foreign powers and sought a thing of value from the Russians in order to get "Opposition Research" from the Russians. As detailed in the Mueller Report;

“The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion. Evidence of Russian government operations began to surface in mid-2016. In June, the Democratic National Committee and its cyber response team publicly announced that Russian hackers had compromised its computer network. Releases of hacked materials-hacks that public reporting soon attributed to the Russian government-began that same month. Additional releases followed in July through the organization WikiLeaks, with further releases in October and November.”

The Russians supported both Trump and Bernie Sanders against Hillary Clinton and their primary purpose was to prevent the election of the Democratic Candidate. However, as detailed in the Mueller Report Trump and his allies solicited such help. Sometimes publicly as when Trump said:

“I will tell you this, Russia: If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” ... “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” [Timeline]

And of course in the infamous June 2016 meeting preparations Donald Trump Junior commented in a message to the Russians:

“Seems we have some time and if it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

Moreover, Donald J. Trump (Senior) recently affirmed that he is willing to accept foreign help in the 2020 election during an interview with ABC News on June 12, 2019 with :

“It’s not an interference, they have information - I think I’d take it,” Trump said. “If I thought there was something wrong, I’d go maybe to the FBI - if I thought there was something wrong.” [Reuters]

This behavior, by himself and his organization, violated USC-30121, part 2; of “Illegal Contributions” law, that declares that it is unlawful for

“a person to solicit, accept, or receive a contribution or donation described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (1) from a foreign national.”

An excuse could have been that he and his family weren't familiar with this section of law, but the Mueller report shows a pattern of similar behavior by a large section of his campaign officials during the 2015-16 election season.

However, the Mueller report also details how they solicited, used and coordinated propaganda from material that had been stolen (hacked) from DNC servers. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, at 18 U.S.C. § 1030, makes it a crime to

“intentionally access[] a computer without authorization . . . and thereby obtain[] . . . information from any protected computer.”lawfare

And there is no doubt that Russians working on behalf of the Russian Government violated USC 1030. As Lawrence Tribe explains 18 U.S.C. § 2 that anyone who:

“aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures”lawfare

Basically the Trump Campaign, or certain of its proxies, made itself an accomplice to Russian Hacking.

Thus, while this material may not rise to felony charges or be prove-able beyond any doubt. The preponderance of Evidence indicates that Donald J. Trump intended to and did violate provisions of US Code 52 30121 and USC 1030, by taking stolen material as a thing of value from the Russians. Moreover, part One of the Mueller report demonstrates coordination, mutual interactions and cooperation between the Trump Campaign, Wikileaks and Russian spies intent on damaging the country and subverting its institutions. These are evidence of subversion and aiding and abetting subversion and thus deserve Condemnation, censure, Impeachment and removal from office.

52 U.S. Code § 30121 - Contributions and donations by foreign nationals

Prohibition

It shall be unlawful for —

(1) a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make—
(2) a person to solicit, accept, or receive a contribution or donation described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (1) from a foreign national.

Article 8: – Misappropriation of Funds to build the Border Wall

Sources and Further reading

Related Posts:: https://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2019/03/why-house-must-invoke-its-impeachment.html; https://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2018/12/why-congress-must-impeach-trump.html
Russian Ties: https://www.politico.com/trump-russia-ties-scandal-guide/timeline-of-events; Cato: https://www.cato.org/publications/white-paper/indispensable-remedy-broad-scope-constitutions-impeachment-power?gclid=Cj0KCQjwrpLoBRD_ARIsAJd0BIVgpOB-VwsV1FGg0FbC1a33uuL7JA7aCMeMCXpcE3jV7z88hieNEQ4aAu-PEALw_wcB; https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-resolution/705/text; https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/how-much-time-trump-spending-trump-properties-n753366
Violation of International Law: https://phr.org/news/a-reminder-to-trump-sealing-the-border-violates-u-s-and-international-law/; https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6215&context=fss_papers
Violation of US Law:: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-politics/trump-nothing-wrong-with-accepting-dirt-from-foreign-governments-on-opponents-idUSKCN1TE03O; https://www.lawfareblog.com/it-crime-russian-election-meddling-and-accomplice-liability-under-computer-fraud-and-abuse-act; https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/03/trump-financial-statements-full-of-lies; First published 6/26/2019, modified several times subsequently.

HoltesThoughts

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Impeachment Articles