Hong Kong pro-democracy protestors through comparisons to the rioters that attacked the U.S. Capitol.[1] And the President of Zimbabwe tweeted a call for the U.S. to end economic sanctions against that country’s authoritarian regime stating that “President Trump extended painful economic sanctions placed on Zimbabwe, citing concerns about Zimbabwe’s democracy” but that the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol “showed that the U.S. has no moral right to punish another nation under the guise of upholding democracy.”[2]
- d. Betrayal of Oath of Office and of the American People’s Trust
President Trump’s incitement of the attack on the Capitol served only his interests. The President lost the election and—when he could not convince the courts or other elected officials to override—he engaged in disinformation and demagoguery to incite a mob in a last-ditch effort to retain power.
In other words, President Trump compromised our national security, the foundation of our democratic system, and our nation’s elected leaders, all in pursuit of his own personal and political advantage and self-interest. Through this conduct President Trump abdicated his Constitutional oath to faithfully execute our laws and his duty to place our nation’s interest, above his own. As President Trump’s former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster characterized it: “It was, in every sense of the phrase, a dereliction of duty.”[3] Following the conduct that led to his impeachment in December 2019, President Trump, for all the country and all the world to see, has once again demonstrated that he is unfit for office and will use any official means at his disposal—regardless of the harm caused to our nation—to hold onto political power.
- C. The Irrelevance of the Criminal Code and the Brandenburg Test
It may well be the case that President Trump’s conduct on January 6, 2021—and other actions that he took in seeking to overturn and subvert the certification of the election results—violated the federal criminal code. Ultimately, that is a judgment for prosecutors and courts to make. The only question here is whether President Trump’s conduct warrants impeachment. As the House Judiciary Committee has previously explained, “[o]ffenses against the Constitution are different in kind than offenses against the criminal code … Impeachment and criminality must therefore be assessed separately.”[4] Accordingly, though it may indeed have done so, President
- ↑ Id.; What Are Asian Governments Saying About the Storming of the US Capitol?, The Diplomat (Jan. 8, 2021); Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on January 7, 2021, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (Jan. 7, 2021).
- ↑ President of Zimbabwe (@edmnangagwa), Twitter (Jan. 7, 2021, 8:42 AM), https://twitter.com/edmnangagwa/status/1347176848694931457.
- ↑ H.R. McMaster (@LTGHRMcMaster), Twitter (Jan. 7, 2021, 3:05 PM), https://twitter.com/LTGHRMcMaster/status/1347273185641734144 (“The reasons for yesterday’s criminal assault on our Congress and election process are many. But foremost among them is the sad reality that President Trump and other officials have repeatedly compromised our principles in pursuit of partisan advantage and personal gain. Those who engaged in disinformation and demagoguery in pursuit of self-interest abdicated their responsibility to the American people. It was, in every sense of the phrase, a dereliction of duty”).
- ↑ See H. Rept. 116-346 at 56.
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