Democrats discuss Trump’s legal fate
Senior Democrats have begun talking openly about the imprisonment or impeachment of US President Donald Trump, amid fresh allegations linking him to hush money paid to two women ahead of the 2016 election.
The result is a growing sense of crisis as Republicans begin to weigh their chances of political survival.
The latest twist came in new court documents that stated Michael Cohen, the President’s former lawyer, had acted at the direction of his employer in arranging the payments.
“They would be impeachable offences. Whether they’re important enough to justify an impeachment is a different question,” Jerry Nadler, the incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told CNN. “Even though they were committed before Trump became President, they were committed in the service of fraudulently obtaining the office.”
His comments highlight the fresh legal and political jeopardy facing Trump, who has spent his entire term under the shadow of a wide-ranging investigation into whether his campaign team colluded with Moscow.
Yesterday the Washington Post reported that Russians interacted with at least 14 Trump associates during the campaign and presidential transition, public records and interviews show.
Republicans believe the reach of Robert Mueller’s federal probe could consume the rest of the party. A sentencing memo filed by prosecutors in New York last week against Cohen raised the stakes. “In particular, and as Cohen himself has now admitted, with respect to both payments, he acted in co-ordination with and at the direction of Individual-1,” it said, using the term prosecutors delpoy to refer to the President.
It is the first time investigators have said they believed Cohen acted with Trump to silence two women who said they had affairs with him. Trump has denied the affairs and any role in the payments, and has not been accused of any offences.
Yet the accelerating flow of court documents and legal pleadings as the investigation enters its final phase has Democrats openly discussing whether the President can be prosecuted. Nadler and other lawmakers said they would await additional details from Mueller’s investigation to determine the extent of Trump’s misconduct.
Although most legal analysts believe a sitting President cannot be indicted, Congressman Adam Schiff, who will head the House intelligence committee from January, said that would not protect Trump once his term ends. “There’s a very real prospect that on the day Donald Trump leaves office, the Justice Department may indict him, that he may be the first President in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time.
“The bigger pardon question may come down the road as the next President has to determine whether to pardon Donald Trump.”
Democrats will be able to launch fresh investigations when their new term begins.