Democrats Filing Two Articles of Impeachment, No Longer Pursuing Bribery
Democrats shift focus away from Bribery, put efforts into removing Trump from office
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House Democrats are expected to announce two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, which will be voted for later in December, consequently putting their efforts into removing him from office.
According to a Washington Post report, the two articles of impeachment will primarily center on “obstructing Congress" and “abuse of power."
Liberal Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz noted last week during the impeachment hearings that the notion that Trump could be impeached for “abuse of power” was an absurd idea.
Dershowitz tweeted:
“The Republicans should have challenged Professor Feldman’s assertion that ‘abuse of office’ is a constitutional basis for impeachment."
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“These words do not appear in the Constitution, and such vague criteria were rejected by the Framers.”
But it is also noted that “bribery" is not included in what the Democrats s will introduce articles of impeachment, according to the Post's report.
The absence of 'bribery' in the articles is significant due to the fact it is what their impeachment effort focused on, after having claimed Trump engaged in a quid pro quo with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a July 25 phone call.
According to a CNN report, the Democrats were discussing whether to add a third article of impeachment for “obstruction of justice.”
As Neon Nettle reported last week, Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn claimed that Trump's 'obstruction' of the now-debunked Mueller investigation was too obvious not be included in the impeachment inquiry.
Clyburn said the obstruction of justice accusations are "too clear not to include" in any set of articles of impeachment, according to the State.
In October, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said the White House was obstructing the inquiry due to the U.S. ambassador to the European Union and the other key witnesses being blocked from giving testimony.
The Republicans should have challenged Professor Feldman’s assertion that “abuse of office" is a constitutional basis for impeachment. These words do not appear in the Constitution and such vague criteria were rejected by the Framers.
— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) December 5, 2019
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“We consider this act today, and the withholding of the ambassador’s documents and other efforts to discourage other State Department witnesses, as further acts of obstruction of a co-equal branch of government,” Schiff said.
Additionally, Democrat Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA) argued that Trump’s efforts to use the court system to settle legal matters was “obstruction of justice.”
“So we are not going to allow the president to use obstruction of justice and obstruction of Congress to stop us by saying, well, we need to call more witnesses,” Jayapal said.
“We have had so many witnesses, including the president of the United States, the key early witness to exactly what happened.”
“So I think what Speaker Pelosi is saying is we’re not going to fall into their tactics of delay and trying to use the court system,” Jayapal added.
“That is, in and of itself, obstruction of justice, and that is what the president does not seem to understand.”
Laying the groundwork to delegitimize 2020
On Monday, Jerry Nadler contested that Trump's re-election may not be "fair" in an interview with NBC host Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press."
The Democrat said if the House votes to impeach Trump, but the Republican-controlled Senate acquits him, resulting in Trump not being removed from office, it wouldn't be a fair election.
"Let me ask you this. If he's acquitted, do you believe we'll have a fair election in 2020?" Todd asked.
"I don't know. The president, based on his past performance, will do everything he can to make it not a fair election," Nadler said.
"And that is part of what gives us the urgency to proceed with this impeachment," Nadler responded.
