Trump ‘misconduct’ worse than Nixon, scholars tell hearing
DONALD TRUMP committed offences worse than Richard Nixon during Watergate and should be impeached for “high crimes and misdemeanours”, three legal scholars selected by Democrats told Congress yesterday.
However, a fourth legal expert, selected by Republicans, said the impeachment case against Mr Trump was the “thinnest” ever, was “slipshod” and would create a “dangerous precedent” for future presidents.
The academics were called by the House judiciary committee, which is expected to draw up formal articles of impeachment within days.
Their role was to explain what the framers of the US constitution intended impeachment to be for, and whether Mr Trump’s actions warranted it.
It followed the publication of a 300page report by the Democrat-led House intelligence committee, based on public hearings, which found “serious misconduct” by the president, and evidence that was “overwhelming”.
Mr Trump, speaking at the Nato summit in London, dismissed the report as a “joke” and attacked Democrats for holding the latest hearing while he was abroad. “Do they, in fact, love our country?” he asked.
The US president has been accused of pressuring Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian leader, to investigate Joe Biden, his potential Democrat rival in 2020, for corruption.
Mr Biden’s son Hunter was on the board of Burisma, a controversial Ukrainian energy company. The
Bidens deny any wrongdoing. Democrats claim that on July 25, in a call with Mr Zelenskiy, Mr Trump sought to leverage $391million in US security aid to Ukraine to secure the Biden investigation. Mr Trump denies doing so.
The three scholars called by Democrats on the judiciary committee declared themselves “unanimous” that Mr Trump had abused his power and should be impeached.
In doing so they introduced references to historical figures including King Charles II; Louis XIV of France; Sir Thomas More, the Tudor statesman; and Alexander Hamilton, the American Founding Father.
Impeachment had been intended by the constitution’s framers as a protection against monarchy, dictatorship and corruption of elections, they said.
Michael Gerhardt, a professor of constitutional law at the University of North Carolina, said Mr Trump’s actions were “worse than the misconduct of any prior president”, including Richard Nixon during Watergate.
He said: “If Congress fails to impeach here, then the impeachment process has lost all meaning. And along with that, our constitution’s carefully crafted safeguards against the establishment of a king on American soil.”
He added: “If left unchecked, the president will likely continue his pattern of soliciting foreign interference on his behalf in the next election.”
He said Mr Trump had committed a litany of offences including bribery, abuse of power, obstruction of Congress, and obstruction of justice.
Pamela Karlan, a law professor at Stanford, said Mr Trump’s behaviour “struck at the very heart of what makes this country a republic”.
However, Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, the witness called by Republicans, warned against impeachment.
He said Mr Trump’s phone call was “anything but perfect,” and the president was not “right”, but the case against him was “woefully inadequate and dangerous”. It had the “thinnest evidentiary record, and the narrowest grounds, ever used to impeach a president,” and would “lower impeachment standards,” he said.
“I’m not a supporter of President Trump. I voted against him. I get it. You are mad … Will a slipshod impeachment make us less mad? Or, will it only give an invitation for the madness to follow in every future administration?” he asked. “It [impeachment of Mr Trump] is wrong. This is not how you impeach an American president.”