Quote:
Originally Posted by Mick
He’s not wrong in what he’s saying. Democrats chose the wrong tool to get to Trump. Impeachment of a private citizen is not constitutional.
If Trump is guilty of an actual crime, then the U.S has a criminal justice system that can convict and punish the 45th President now he is out of office.
|
Actually, as I understand it, the Constitution does not limit the power of impeachment to serving presidents, or even serving government officers. Look up William Belknap, Secretary of War, who resigned when he was accused of corruption, then, as with Trump, was impeached after he left. Also, as with Trump, the senate, when voting, failed to reach the required two thirds majority, so was acquitted. His defence argued, as the republicans have, that the senate does not have the power to convict when the person has left.
Personally, I do think Trump was guilty. He didn't directly tell the rioters to riot, but bearing in mind the number of people coming into the capital (and I refuse to believe that many people would have suddenly turned up in Washington and not been noticed by the Authorities, who likely would have alerted the Administration), but he should have asked people to leave. He didn't. He did ask them to demonstrate peacefully, but having spent the last four years winding them up, I'd be surprised if he didn't realise that certain rioters would ignore the word "peacefully", especially as it was only said once.
However, I think Trump has been clever in one way. As one lawyer I watched said, he acts like a Godfather. He never directly orders that anything remotely illegal happens to anyone, but heavily implies that something bad should happen, leaving some functionary to actually do the bad stuff, but leaving the Godfather with plausible deniability.