UF student leader faces impeachment
Student body head in hot water after paying for Trump Jr. visit
GAINESVILLE Donald Trump isn’t the only president facing an impeachment inquiry. The student body president of the University of Florida is facing an impeachment threat for spending $50,000 in student fees to bring Trump’s eldest son and his girlfriend to campus.
Members of the university’s student senate filed a resolution on Tuesday to impeach Student Body President Michael Murphy for malfeasance and abuse of power.
The resolution accuses Murphy of spending mandatory student fees to push his own political beliefs when he brought Donald Trump Jr., and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, to speak on campus last month.
Student Body statutes forbid student money from being spent in support of or against a political party, according to the resolution.
The Tampa Bay Times reports Murphy has maintained that the visit wasn’t campaign related.
But emails obtained by The Independent Florida Alligator, the student newspaper, show a Trump reelection campaign official personally asked Murphy in September to bring Donald Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle to campus.
“We met at my house on the 4th of July,” Caroline Wren, a national finance consultant of Trump Victory, wrote Murphy in a Sept. 10 email obtained by the student newspaper. “I wanted to follow up with you regarding a speaking engagement at the University of Florida for Donald Trump Jr.”
The Alligator reported that Murphy also reached out to the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, inviting him to come to campus, but the Sanders campaign declined, citing scheduling issues.
Murphy didn’t respond to email inquiry on Wednesday.
The filing of the impeachment resolution in Gainesville comes within a day of the first public hearing on Wednesday of the Trump impeachment inquiry in Washington. an