Gulf News

Trump sees market crash if impeached

US PRESIDENT SUGGESTS OUTLAWING PROSECUTOR­S’ DEALS WITH DEFENDANTS

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US President Donald Trump predicted in an interview broadcast yesterday that the stock market would crash and “everybody would be very poor” if he were to be impeached by the US House of Representa­tives next year.

Trump was asked about the prospect during an interview on Fox & Friends by host Ainsley Earhardt, who noted that Democrats are vying to take control of the House in the November elections.

“You know, I guess it says something like ‘high crimes’ and all . . . . I don’t know how you can impeach somebody who’s done a great job,” Trump said in the interview, which was recorded on Wednesday.

“I’ll tell you what, if I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash,” he said. “I think everybody would be very poor because without this thinking, you would see numbers that you wouldn’t believe.”

The US Constituti­on says the president, vice-president and “all civil officers” — which has been construed to include judges and members of a president’s cabinet — “shall be removed from office on impeachmen­t for, and

I don’t know how you can impeach somebody who’s done a great job.” Donald Trump | US President

conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeano­rs.” Trump, incensed over a deal his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen cut with prosecutor­s, said it might be better if “flipping” were illegal because people “just make up lies”.

“I know all about flipping,” Trump said.

Talk of possible impeachmen­t of Trump accelerate­d last week with the guilty plea of Cohen.

US President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen told lawmakers under oath last year that he did not know if the then candidate was aware of a Trump Tower meeting with Russians in 2016, three sources with knowledge of Cohen’s testimony have told news website Axios.

The story runs contrary to other news outlets reporting in the past month that Cohen was willing to tell special counsel Robert Mueller that Trump knew about the meeting in advance.

Cohen testified before the Senate Intelligen­ce Committee in the fall of 2017. According to three sources, Cohen not only said that he himself had no foreknowle­dge of the meeting, but that he had no idea whether Trump did either, Axios reported.

At the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower, Russians offered to provide damaging informatio­n about his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., along with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and senior campaign aide Paul Manafort, took part in the meeting with Nataliya Veselnitsk­aya, a Russian lawyer and acknowledg­ed Kremlin informant.

Cohen pleaded Tuesday to eight guilty on criminal charges of tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations. He told a federal court in New York that Trump had directed him to arrange payments ahead of the 2016 presidenti­al election to silence two women who said they had sex with Trump.

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