Congress must stand up to the president
Laurence Tribe and two ethics experts weigh in on Trump
President Trump did far worse than violate some statute or constitutional provision when he fired FBI Director James Comey, told NBC News he did it with Russia on his mind, and threatened Comey on Twitter about “tapes” of their conversations — all after reportedly asking Comey in January for his “loyalty.” Trump challenged the very premises of our system of checks and balances and gave Congress reason to look into impeaching him for obstructing justice.
As virtually every observer not beholden to this president has recognized, the excuses offered in his “You’re Fired” letter to Comey were laughably pretextual. The letter came several days after Comey asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for added resources to expand his wideranging investigation into Trump team ties to Russia. The letter included Trump’s implausible assertion that Comey had assured Trump three times that he was not himself under investigation. And the White House absurdly attributed the decision to Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email controversy half a year ago. UGLY DRAMA At this point, it is exceedingly difficult to avoid the conclusion that the president is seeking to cover up wrongdoing on his own part and/or on the part of various close associates; that he is prepared to lie to government officials and to the world about the reasons for actions evidently designed to perpetrate just such a coverup; and that the wrongdoing the president is seeking to conceal is nothing minor or tangential but, on the contrary, may involve collaboration with our Russian adversaries in attacking our democracy at its core.
Rosenstein could name an independent special counsel in an attempt to redeem himself for his role in the pretense that Comey was fired over missteps in the Clinton probe. But the constraints under which such a special counsel would have to operate under current law, and the constitutional subservience of any such counsel to the president as head of the executive branch, are a prescription for a replay of an ugly drama: President Nixon fired two attorneys general before finding someone (Robert Bork) willing to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox — only to be pressured into ap- pointing another special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, who ended up being as unshakable as Cox.
The other main path is through Congress. Lawmakers are unprepared politically just yet to initiate full-blown impeachment proceedings. At the very least, the House Judiciary Committee should immediately convene hearings on abuse of power by the president and his administration, and Congress should create a bipartisan select committee to carry out the investigation
Trump evidently doesn’t want the FBI to conduct a probe. Even without a new committee, just a few GOP senators joining with Democrats can give subpoena power to the Senate investigation into what some are calling Russiagate. Then at least one possibly credible body not subject to the president’s discharge power would be on the hunt for the real story of why Trump fired the main investigator on his trail and precisely what he’s trying to hide. UNDERLYING CONDUCT The most important task is to track the details of the global financial entanglements that have ensnared this administration and that have led to litigation against Trump under the Emoluments Clauses of the Constitution. That is likely the key to identifying what underlying conduct is so terrible the Trump administration is willing to disgrace itself on the world stage to conceal it.
Given the bizarre unwillingness of the president to say anything unflattering about Russian President Vladimir Putin, and given his readiness to keep Michael Flynn on as national security adviser for a full 18 days after being warned that Flynn could be subject to blackmail by Putin and his thugs, the truth could lie in what Donald Trump Jr. described in 2008 as all the “money pouring in from Russia” that makes up “a pretty disproportionate crosssection of a lot of our assets.”
The most troubling scenario is that the money is closely tied to the Putin government itself and is part of a web of reciprocal relationships between Trump and Putin, which included a collaborative effort to place Trump in the Oval Office.
If true, this would necessarily lead to the impeachment, conviction and removal of President Trump — assuming the requisite political backbone on the part of the House and Senate.
Given Trump’s own statements of the past few days, however, Congress might already have reason to start down that path.