Op-Ed: Trump lawyers argue abuse of power isn't a thing when it comes to impeachment. History says otherwise (via latimesopinion)
of the impeachments approved by the House “have specifically invoked a criminal statute.”
The Trump trial brief is chock-full of tendentious and unsupportable arguments. The president’s counsel complain that “House Democrats do not have a single witness who claims, based on direct knowledge,” that Trump conditioned military aid on an investigation of the Bidens. Since it was the president’s order tothat prevented such witnesses from testifying, that argument smacks of the kid who murders his parents and throws himself on the mercy of the court as an orphan.
But for sheer chutzpah, nothing compares to the Trump attorneys’ assertion that abuse of power is a “novel” theory of impeachment — it’s actually impeachment’s core. President Nixon quit before he could be impeached by the full House, but Watergate rightfully looms large as a paradigm case for what impeachment is for: a corrupt president who misuses the powers of his office to “best screw” political enemies, as the famed Nixon “enemies list” memo put it.
One more thing: Trump’s lawyers argue that, when it comes to impeachment, our “one and only president” deserves special treatment. His “unique role in our constitutional structure sets him apart and warrants more rigorous standards.” This too would have been news to Madison, who thought the singular nature of the office made impeachment all the more “indispensable” when it came to the presidency. As he, the fact that “the Executive magistracy … was to be administered by a single man,” meant that incapacity or corruption in that office “might be fatal to the Republic.” Given the vast powers the modern presidency holds, that concern is even more urgent today.
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