Free Republic

How long will President Trump survive? Nobody knows, but everyone’s guessing. It’s a basic principle of psychology that the defenses we erect to defend our value always end up producing exactly what we are trying to avoid. In Trump’s case, the relentless insistence that he didn’t do it feeds the case that he did do it. I don’t know what the “it” will turn out to be, but I know Trump well enough to know that there are countless potential “its.” I believe the end for Trump is much closer than most people imagine. Perhaps that’s wishful thinking, and I...

Examining the 1998 votes on the charge of "obstruction of justice" by Bill "The Pantload" Clinton, we see that 48 currently sitting Democrat members of Congress said that Clinton did NOT commit "obstruction", when he clearly did. Futhermore, 7 currently sitting Democrat US senators voted against the "obstruction of justice" charge when they were members of the US House of Representatives in 1998. This includes Chuck "Three Bites" Schumer, who got THREE bites at the "obstruction of justice" apple - once when he voted "no" on the House Judiciary Committee, again when he voted "no" as a member of the...

“The indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions.” -- DOJ opinion, October 16, 2000 The Department of Justice has long held that it would be unconstitutional to criminally charge and prosecute a sitting president. The Constitution itself expressly states that “indictment, trial, judgment and punishment” can occur only after a president is convicted upon impeachment (Article 1, Section 3). However, there is nothing to prevent a special counsel from investigating a president and leveling an accusation with no formal charge. The accusation could be...

How about Session creates a Prosecutor to look into Russian Hacking and interference including Trump thing IN PARALLEL to the other slow moving money draining sketchy biased Mueller council. Trump can be like “You know this is taking very long, and I want to make double sure that this is taken care of”. This would be a more pro Trump prosecutor to look into the issue. This would be fair. They can after a short period of time exchange information. Trump can’t get rid of the current prosecutor (or feels enough pressure not to). Well, this may be a solution...

A Democrat-controlled House would overturn the election and impeach Trump. Throughout history, grandiose visions of world-altering consequences have motivated political assassins. Gavril Princip’s June 1914 rendezvous with Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo is a horrifying example. Despite the historical track record, until James T. Hodgkinson’s June 2017 criminal assault on a Virginia baseball diamond, a chilling congressional coup d’état scenario which alters history in these United States would be little more than an edgy plot-line in a paperback thriller. In the Hollywood movie version there is a one hundred percent certainty right wing activists would be the monsters who attempted the...

Suppose most Americans were to conclude that President Trump is unfit for office. How long would it take to remove him? If President Nixon’s example provides any guidance, the answer is: a long time—if ever.(GRAPH-AT-LINK) Consider the first chart, which shows Nixon’s approval ratings throughout his truncated second term, and also Trump’s approval ratings so far. (All of the approval numbers cited here are from Gallup’s Presidential Job Approval Center.) Nixon’s second-term approval started strong, in the high sixties, but plummeted as Watergate revelations emerged. By the time the Senate Watergate hearings began, in May of 1973, his ratings were...

Rep. Ted Lieu: If Trump fired Rosenstein and Mueller, "I believe Congress would begin impeachment proceedings." https://t.co/lqJ0JTg1l6 — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 17, 2017 Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said Friday that Congress would come together and “begin impeachment proceedings” against President Trump if he fired special counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. “All Americans, regardless of party, agree on the fundamental principle that no one is above the law,” Lieu said on MSNBC. “And if President Trump were to fire Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein, and then [get] special counsel Mueller fired, I believe Congress would begin impeachment...

In the wake of former FBI Director James Comey's admission that there is no evidence of collusion between Trump and the Russians to rig last year's presidential election, independent counsel Robert Mueller has initiated a major expansion of his staff. "Inasmuch as it is inconceivable that a person as qualified as Secretary Clinton could be beaten by a boorish amateur like Donald Trump in a fair contest, there has to have been some sort of underhanded manipulation involved," Mueller reasoned. "My good friend James Comey valiantly tried to soldier on before he was improperly dismissed by his obviously guilty target....

Politics: It is merely a coincidence that just as the Trump-Russia collusion story started seriously falling apart, Democrats suddenly shifted gears to file a lawsuit against President Trump for allegedly violating an obscure provision of the Constitution involving foreign "emoluments." On Monday, attorneys general from Maryland and Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit against Trump claiming that he is "flagrantly violating" the Constitution because he is still the owner of his businesses, even though he's given up the operation of them. On Wednesday, nearly 200 Democratic lawmakers sued Trump on the same basis, with Michigan Rep. John Conyers claiming that "Trump...

Hodgkinson had a history of violence that did not rise to the level to prohibit him from legally owning a firearm. He was the foster father of at least two girls. The first, Wanda Ashley Stock, 17, committed suicide in 1996 by pouring gasoline on herself and setting herself on fire after a few months of living with the Hodgkinsons, the Belleville News-Democrat reports. The Hodgkinsons gave an interview to the paper after her suicide, calling her a “very practical, level-headed girl.”

It was great entertainment, but for all the hype, the Senate Intelligence Committee hearings that featured former FBI Director James Comey failed to deliver a knockout punch. You are not going to get another “All the President’s Men” out of this story. At least not yet. The facts are not there. Yes, Russia meddled in the presidential election, and yes, President Trump wanted Comey to drop the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s contacts with Russian officials. But so far, there is no silver bullet that will bring the president down. As tempting as it is for the...

Amid James Comey’s damning testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, calls for President Donald Trump to face impeachment proceedings are surging. In the past 48 hours, two of the leading Trump resistance groups have called for the first time for the impeachment process to start against Trump on charges of obstruction of Justice.

As you read this, the president of the United States might very well have said or tweeted out more intemperate things. It is pretty clear that Donald J. Trump plays fast and loose with the English language, and that diplomatic speak is not in his wheelhouse. He shoots from the lip and worries about cleaning up the mess his statements create later – if ever. That said, a U.S. president cannot be impeached for simply saying imprudent things. I spent several years reporting from Washington, D.C., and I believe there is nearly no chance of President Trump being removed from...

Key Democratic Party donor Tom Steyer is calling on lawmakers to begin an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, saying that already, the facts "exceed standards for presidential impeachment for obstruction of justice" drafted against Presidents Richard Nixon in 1974 and Bill Clinton in 1998. In his letter to Congress, published through Medium, Friday, Steyer, whose superPAC NextGen Climate Action spent about $100 million in the 2016 election, said the "clear and undisputed" facts being exposed call for an "immediate impeachment inqury" by the House.....

Leading Democratic Party donor Tom Steyer is asking lawmakers to begin the impeachment process for President Trump.Steyer, whose superPAC NextGen Climate Action poured about $100 million into the 2016 election, penned a letter Friday to Congress persuading them that Trump had obstructed justice and asking them to begin the impeachment process.    In the letter, Steyer argues that the “clear and undisputed facts about Mr. Trump’s attempt to impede an FBI investigation demand an immediate impeachment inquiry by the House of Representatives.”   The letter was first reported by The Huffington Post. According to Steyer, Trump’s alleged interference into the investigation of his...

Twitter helped make Donald Trump president. It may also lead to his impeachment. The president values Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as ways to bypass a hostile media and express his thoughts directly and authentically. But there is a difference between tweeting as a candidate for president and tweeting as the president. And there have been plenty of times since January when his Twitter habit has diverted President Trump from his message and agenda.

Washington (AFP) - Fired FBI director James Comey withheld judgment Thursday on whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice in requesting that he drop an investigation into his former national security advisor. Instead he indicated before the Senate Intelligence Committee that it was up to a high-powered special prosecutor to determine whether the president's behavior constituted the potentially impeachable offense. But what does the charge mean, and how might it lead to possible impeachment? {..snip..}

The numbers are stark: Among registered voters in a Politico/Morning Consult poll at the end of May, 43% want Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump, up from 38% the week before. But experts say the polls may mean less than they appear to show. Three polls by CNN/ORC showed roughly similar numbers of adults—about 30%—wanted to impeach President Clinton in 1998, President Bush in 2006 and President Obama in 2014, even though the presidents were in very different circumstances. And Gallup polls from the Watergate era show a clear majority of Americans didn't support impeaching Nixon and removing...

Constitutional expert and famed Harvard law Professor, Alan Dershowitz, took on Jeffrey Toobin to discuss the ongoing Trump-Comey saga, saying in no uncertain terms that “this is not obstruction of justice.” He explains, “That is his constitutional power. He has the right to say, ‘You will not investigate Flynn.’ The best proof of that is he could have simply said to Comey, ‘Stop the investigation, I’ve just pardoned Flynn.’” To back up his assertions, Dershowitz reminded viewers of when Bush I pardoned Casper Weinberger the night before trial. After doing so, no one cried ‘obstruction’ because it was within the...

Two House Democrats are launching a long shot bid to impeach President Donald Trump, a step that illustrates the deep political divide engulfing Washington and much of the country. The effort by Reps. Al Green of Texas and Brad Sherman of California has little chance of success in the Republican-led House. They don’t even have the backing of many fellow Democrats. Nevertheless, the lawmakers said Wednesday they are drafting articles of impeachment. They say Trump obstructed justice when he fired FBI Director James Comey, who was investigating possible Russian ties to the Trump campaign. Federal authorities say they have definitive...