It's only happened twice before, but could this be the third time?!
Here are the ways how the establishment will try to impeach President Trump!
4 - Associating Trump to Russia
This has been perhaps the most belabored accusation against President Trump.
Trump, along with some of his supporters have argued that he has no ties with Russia whatsoever
and that the whole Russia thing has been fake news and a response by Democrats who are being
sore losers after getting trounced in both national and statewide elections.
President Trump's right; no one likes a sore loser.
However, let's look at the connections between Trump and Russia that have been circulating.
Let's start with something undeniable.
The FBI is currently investigating connections between some of Trump's associates and Russian
officials.
Ironically, it was an FBI investigation against his opponent during the election that arguably
helped propel Trump to the white House to begin with.
Now it could help with his Impeachment.
The New York Times uncovered evidence that some of Trump's inner circle were in contact
with Top Russian officials DURING the election.
This has been corroborated by Russian officials such as Sergei Ryabkov.
To make matters worse for Trump, his former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn,
not only has extensive Russian Ties himself, but was also discovered to have discussed
Russian sanctions with his Russian counterpart Sergey Kislyak.
The conversation, which has been confirmed to have taken place, went down on December
30, just less than a month before Trump took office.
The Obama administration slapped Russia with a number of sanctions after a thorough investigation
by Intelligence agencies revealed that Vladimir Putin, personally "ordered an influence
campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election," and turned from seeking to "denigrate"
Hillary Clinton to developing "a clear preference for President-elect Trump."
Flynn allegedly told Kislyak that Trump would lift any sanctions that Obama placed on them,
and urged the Russians not to retaliate.
When the news broke, Flynn was forced to resign after he supposedly lied to Vice President
Mike Pence about the nature of the conversation.
Trump claimed he only fired him for lying, and that he would also have instructed him
to do exactly what he did...which was basically interfering with government business.Trump
also accused the media of illegally leaking classified information, and promised an investigation
into them.
He admitted that the leaked information was accurate but that the reporting was "fake."
Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort is also known to have business ties in Russia,
and a foreign policy advisor to his campaign named Carter Page traveled to Moscow in July
of 2016.
According to memos from a former British Spy named Christopher Steele, Igor Sechin, the
CEO of a Russian oil company promised Page a 19 percent stake in his company if he could
get Trump to lift the sanctions placed on Russia by the Obama Administration.
Four days after Trump became president, the company sold a 19.5 percent stake in the company
to an unnamed buyer…..hmmmm…..
Okay, so Trump seems to have some pretty shady people around him.
Name a president who hasn't….you can't can you?
But Trump's own businesses have extensive Russian ties that has ethics experts very
concerned.
For starters Trump has yet to take all the steps necessary to distance himself from his
business, or even release his tax returns.
And despite recent claims that he "has no relationship with Putin" he said the exact
opposite in 2013 when he told MSNBC "I do have a relationship."
That "relationship" is most likely a financial one.
As Trump's debt has grown to something like $630 million, his dependency on Russian investors
for his business ties abroad and at home has increased significantly, some of whom allegedly
have close ties to Putin.
In a lawsuit filed against Trump in relation to his SoHo development, Trump allegedly defrauded
investors by misrepresenting his wealth, and receiving undisclosed cash infusions from
Russian investors such as Felix Sater and Salvatore Lauria.
The latter secretly brokered a $50 million loan to Trump for the 46-story luxury hotel.
Both of these guys are convicted felons, and are according to some, associates of Putin
as well, a claim which has not been independently verified.
In 2011, Trump and his co defendants, agreed to refund 90 percent of the $3.16 million
they received from actual investors.
Trump's own son, Donald Jr. said in 2008 "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate
cross-section of a lot of our assets.
We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia."
Finally, before we move on from Russia, let's not forget that Intelligence agencies are
pretty certain that Russia interfered with the election for the specific purpose of helping
Trump win.
While accurate information about Hillary Clinton and her own web of conflicts of interest was
gleaned from wikileaks and Russian hacking of government data, the hacking was still
illegal.
As the timeline of the Trump campaign's contact with Russia is coming together, the
picture can be painted much more suspicious.
As the FBI is already investigating this connection, many people are calling on Congress to do
the same.
So how is all of this actually impeachable.
Well, a President taking money from foreign governments is against the law.
It's violating Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution.
Using the Presidency for Private Gain is also against the law.
Specifically it's against 5 Code of Federal Regulations 2635.702.
And Colluding with Foreign Governments is considered treason.
The last one is hard to prove, because we don't know what Trump's associates discussed
with Russia, or if they even discussed Trump at all.
But it's still very suspicious to many people...including the CIA, FBI and members of Trump's own
party.
The only question now is will there be strong enough evidence to convince the Senate, which
is Republican controlled, to move to impeach President Trump?
3 - Conflicts of Interest
It's not just Russia that has people concerned about the President's motives.
Of course one of his most controversial moves so far has been the Executive Order that banned
refugees from seven middle eastern countries from entering the country for 90 days.
Trump defended the ban, citing how the Obama administration flagged each of the seven countries
as potential countries of concern.
A lot of people don't know that the Obama administration has bombed 6 out of the 7 countries
on the ban list.
Trump's detractors will say that people from the seven countries included in the ban,
Iran, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Sudan and Somalia, have committed a whopping ZERO terror
attacks in America post 9/11.
They'll also say, take a look at the other countries from the region that aren't included
in the ban.
People from the U.A.E, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Azerbaijan, and Turkey for example, HAVE committed
acts of terror.
Namely, most of the 9/11 conspirators came from Saudi Arabia.
So what's the difference?
Trump has known business ties in the countries excluded from the list.
He has golf courses in the U.A.E and luxury towers in Turkey.
He also licensed his name to build a hotel in Azerbaijan.
FEC filings show that Trump has ties to companies involved with developments in Jeddah, one
of Saudi Arabia's largest cities.
He even has reported business interest in Egypt, based off two companies listed on his
FEC filings; Trump Marks Egypt, and Trump Marks Egypt LLC.
Other countries he's done business in include Brazil, China, Cuba, Indonesia, and Israel,
just to name a few.
Oddly enough, the one that is most troubling is the one closest to him.
Trump has leased The Old Post Office Hotel near the White House.
When foreign Governments stay there, some argue that alone violates the emoluments clause,
a provision in the Constitution, which prohibits gifts from foreign countries to U.S Officials.
The clause states, "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And
no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent
of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from
any King, Prince, or foreign State."
His critics' logic is that the clause prohibits Trump from taking any money at all from a
foreign state.
To them, the clause prohibits not just straight-up gifts but also payments for services rendered.
For example, a Trump-owned hotel renting a ballroom to a foreign embassy or Trump Tower
renting out office space to a state-controlled Chinese bank would be prohibited.
I mean….by this logic, how many people in DC would be out of a position if this applied
to anyone?!
Trump's critics argue that simply handing the business over to his kids, who often advise
him on policies, isn't enough to soothe any of their conflicts of interest concerns.
2 - Abuse of Power
Of course the term "Abuse of Power" alone is broadly defined and open to interpretation.
However some of Trump's language and actions suggest that he could be violating the constitution
or may do so in the future.
Some could argue that his attacks against the press violates the First Amendment.
He has stated he wants to "open up" libel laws against the press so he can "sue them
and win lots of money."
He's also declared them the "enemy of the American People."
During the campaign Trump also called for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims
entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going
on."
He then of course proceeded to institute a travel ban that would prevent refugees from
muslim majority countries from coming to America.
Just to be fair, let's not forget, President Obama restricted immigration to specific groups
of people NINETEEN times.
Four of those times were to Muslim majority countries.
Seems interesting that Trump catches a lot more media attention in this matter.
Pffft.
Anyways, Trump, for his part, argued that the intent of the Executive Order was purely
to keep Americans safe from terrorists posing as refugees.
When a Ninth Circuit Judge blocked Trump's travel ban, Trump lashed out calling him a
"so called judge."
The framers of our constitution made certain that the judiciary branch has the autonomy
to check the Executive Branch, and Trump's refusal to acknowledge that could pave the
way for him to disobey the court in the future.
That however, is just a hypothetical.
Andrew Jackson disobeyed the Supreme Court when he forced Native Americans from their
home lands, and he still managed to avoid impeachment.
Trump has also used his position of power to bully private companies such as Nordstrom,
and has antagonized government agencies such as the National Parks service, and has allegedly
assigned shadow secretaries to each government agency to monitor employees...possibly to
root out anyone who doesn't support him.
Now, let's be clear, none of this is impeachable in and of itself.
But there arguably is a pattern here.
Trump sometimes acts unilaterally without the input of career professionals.
Trump will be under the microscope for his entire term.
1 - Perjury and other forms of lying
Many people have accused Trump of often being less than truthful.
Their proof?
Claims by Trump that are easily and quantifiably debunked, according to his critics.
Trump claimed that more than 5 million people voted illegally.
His critics say he cited no evidence other than a debunked study that found lots of people
were registered in more than one state and that some dead people were still registered.
They say that all that proves is a system that is complicated and slow to update.
They claim that there is no proof that proves 5 million people illegally voted for Hillary
Clinton.
As Politico pointed out in an article, of the roughly 100,000 voting sites, 50 people
would have to have committed a felony to reach the 5 million plateau.
That means a federal crime would occur roughly 4 timers per hour at every single voting precinct
in America...assuming the crimes were distributed evenly across the country.
Private citizens, poll workers, and even elected officials, including many Republicans, would
have had to be in on this massive conspiracy to cover it up, and risk years and years of
jail time.
His critics argue that this is the groundwork for voter suppression, which violates the
Fourteenth Amendment.
President Trump will indeed be under the microscope and treated much differently than past Presidents,
and that fact is already clear.
His opponents will be looking for any which way to get him out
of office.
Here's what's next!
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