The Case for Impeachment

Introduction

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The Trump administration is awash in investigations, by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the U.S. House and Senate Intelligence Committees, and the Senate Judiciary Committee. There’s hope to be found in these inquiries. Still, it is past time for the investigation that matters most to President Donald Trump and the American people: an impeachment investigation by the House Judiciary Committee. This committee investigates potential impeachable offenses and decides whether to recommend articles of impeachment to the full House, which possesses the sole constitutional authority necessary for impeaching a president. If impeached, the U.S. Senate has the authority to remove the president from office by a two-thirds vote.

To date, in early November 2017, much new public evidence has emerged that points to collusion between the Trump team and the Russians. Meanwhile, President Trump has ignored nearly all my earlier advice on how to avoid impeachment, choosing instead to endeavor to obstruct the Russia investigation, exacerbate his conflicts of interest, edge closer to committing a crime against humanity on climate change, and continue his abuse of presidential power. Trump’s transgressions have reached the point where Congress must assess whether he poses a clear and present danger to America’s national security and the freedom and liberties of her people.

An impeachment investigation should not turn on disputes over the president’s style or policies, but only on what Alexander Hamilton termed “the abuse of violation of some public trust” that leads to “injuries done immediately to the society itself.” By placing the power to impeach in an elected body, the framers recognized that the assessment of impeachable offenses demands moral, legal, and political judgment.

THE RUSSIAN CONNECTION

The Russian sword of Damocles now hangs over this administration by the slenderest of threads. Despite repeated claims of innocence from Trump and his associates, they’ve engaged in a recurring pattern of deception concerning their ties to the Russians. They conceal and lie, and then when caught, claim that all contacts were innocuous. The publicly known evidence for collusion between the Trump team, and perhaps Trump himself, and the Russians is circumstantial, but powerful. Many Americans have been indicted and convicted of serious crimes based on circumstantial evidence.

The most compelling evidence of collusion comes from a previously undisclosed meeting between Kremlin-connected Russians and the highest echelons of the Trump campaign—son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner, and then–campaign manager Paul Manafort. According to email evidence, the meeting in question was set up by Rob Goldstone, the manager for pop singer Emin Agalarov, who is the son of Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov. Trump had previously sought to partner with the elder Agalarov—a close ally of President Vladimir Putin—on ambitious real estate deals in Russia.1

GOLDSTONE TO TRUMP JR., JUNE 3, 2016

Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting.

The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.

This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump – helped along by Aras and Emin.

What do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly?

I can also send this info to your father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first.

TRUMP JR. TO GOLDSTONE, JUNE 3, 2016

Thanks Rob I appreciate that. I am on the road at the moment but perhaps I just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer. Could we do a call first thing next week when I am back?

GOLDSTONE TO TRUMP JR., JUNE 7, 2016

Emin asked that I schedule a meeting with you and The Russian government attorney who is flying over from Moscow for this Thursday.

TRUMP JR. TO GOLDSTONE, JUNE 7, 2016

Great. It will likely be Paul Manafort (campaign boss) my brother in law and me, 725 Fifth Ave 25th floor.

Based on this email chain and subsequent meeting, “it’s now established that the campaign was aware of, and involved in, Russian attempts to meddle in the election,” said Cornell University law professor Jens David Ohlin. “The only question now is whether President Trump was personally involved or not.” Another authority, Michigan law professor Samuel Gross, said, “This is beginning to look a lot like a criminal conspiracy … You can be indicted on less evidence than this.”2

Donald Trump Jr. lied multiple times about the Russia meeting, both before and after its disclosure. In March 2017, Trump Jr. told the New York Times, “Did I meet with people that were Russian? I’m sure, I’m sure I did. But none that were set up. None that I can think of at the moment. And certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form.”3

On July 8, after the Times broke the story of the June 9 meeting, Trump Jr. commented, “It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up.”4

Then, after the Times indicated on July 10 that it had in its possession the email chain for the meeting, Trump Jr. again changed his story, this time issuing a tweet that said, “Obviously [not] the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent … went nowhere but had to listen.” Despite that claim, he never did cite any examples of other leaders of a presidential campaign meeting with representatives of a hostile foreign power to amass incriminating data on their opponent.5

Moments before the Times reported on the existence of the emails, Trump Jr. preemptively released them, saying he was being “totally transparent”—this after months of dissembling. That same day, he told Sean Hannity of Fox News that nothing else of significance would emerge about the meeting. “This is everything,” Trump Jr. said. But “everything” it was not. The press discovered that several more Russians had attended the meeting than Trump Jr. had disclosed, including Irakly Kaveladze, who was well known for moving money into the United States for wealthy Russians. Kaveladze attended as a representative of Aras Agalarov, whom Goldstone had identified as having met with Russia’s “Crown prosecutor” and having received her offer to provide incriminating information about Clinton. Also present was Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian immigrant to the States with connections to Russia’s oligarchs and the Kremlin.6

Even Donald Trump Jr.’s best attempt at impersonating the naïve American ignorant of all things Russian wouldn’t have been enough to fool the American people. In 2008, he’d bragged that “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” and just months before the June 2016 meeting, the Trump Organization was in hot pursuit of a real estate deal in Moscow.

Donald Trump Jr. denied having participated in telephone calls about the meeting, but phone records revealed that several such calls were indeed held between him and Emin Agalarov. Trump Jr. insisted to Senate investigators that he had no recollection of the content of those conversations. He said that the meeting was so inconsequential that Manafort was on his phone for most of it. But Manafort was not making outside calls; he was using his phone to take meeting notes.7

According to Donald Trump Jr., he’d maintained no more than a “casual relationship” with Goldstone since the two first met in 2014. Yet, in one of the most important but overlooked emails, Goldstone disclosed much deeper ties to the Trumps. Goldstone reveals that he had direct inside access to Donald Trump Sr. “via Rhona.” Rhona Graff is a multi-decade Trump loyalist and assistant, who, according to an article published in Politico well after the June 2016 meeting, was a conduit to Trump Sr. for “longtime friends and associates,” not casual acquaintances. Goldstone even addresses Trump’s gatekeeper by her first name only. This purported connection raises serious questions about direct collusion between candidate Trump and the Russians.8

Donald Trump Jr. assured Hannity that he did not tell his father about the meeting. Yet White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that three days before the Hannity interview, President Trump had “weighed in as any father would” on drafting Trump Jr.’s initial misleading account of the meeting. The Washington Post reported without contradiction from the White House that President Trump did more than just “weigh in”; he dictated the statement while aboard Air Force One, en route to Washington from a meeting in Germany. The big question is when Trump Sr. learned of the June 2016 meeting. If he learned about it only after the media broke the story more than a year later, his input on the misleading memo could still expose him to an obstruction of justice charge. If he knew about the meeting at the time it took place, then he could be subject to charges of collusion with the Russians as well.9

Once more, Trump Jr. changed his story—this time in written testimony presented to the Senate Intelligence Committee. His latest explanation: “To the extent they [the Russians] had information concerning the fitness, character or qualifications of a presidential candidate, I believed that I should at least hear them out … Depending on what, if any, information they had, I could then consult with counsel to make an informed decision as to whether to give it further consideration.” He claimed, however, that the Russians provided “no useful information” about Clinton, adding that “at this time [June 2016] there was not the focus on Russian activities that there is today.” Trump Jr. denied any recollection of his father’s participation in drafting his initial statement on the June 9 meeting.10

Regarding his exclamation of “I love it” in the flurry of emails exchanged with Goldstone, Trump Jr. explained that “it was simply a colloquial way of saying that I appreciated Rob’s gesture.” That Trump Jr. expected anyone to believe those words of enthusiasm were not a direct response to the Russian government’s offer to help elect his father and provide incriminating information on Clinton is really quite incredible. In his message to Goldstone, Trump Jr. had remarked that the information would be especially useful “later in the summer,” when he expected the Republican National Convention to nominate Trump as the party’s presidential candidate.11

The questions raised by Trump Jr.’s series of ever-changing accounts are extensive and pressing. Who of sound mind could believe that the Russians were a reliable and objective source on “the fitness, character, or qualifications of a presidential candidate,” especially when the stated purpose of the meeting was to provide intel on Clinton so damning that it might sway the election in candidate Trump’s favor? And by what means other than illegal spying and thievery could the Russians have obtained such previously undisclosed dirt on Clinton?

If the meeting was of so little consequence, why did its participants shroud it in secrecy for so long? Why the rush to consult with lawyers after the fact if nothing about the meeting had a whiff of potential illegality? Why didn’t an email saying that the meeting invitation was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump” set off loud alarm bells for the candidate’s son? Why didn’t Trump Jr. immediately report this evidence of probable foreign meddling in the election to the FBI? Why did Donald J. Trump Sr. say in campaign rallies immediately after the meeting that damaging information on Clinton would be forthcoming? How did Trump Jr. forget about the president’s involvement, just a couple of months earlier, in drafting his critical first statement about the meeting? These lies are potentially relevant to Trump Sr.’s impeachment if Trump Jr. was protecting his father from contemporary knowledge of the June 2016 meeting.