In a new report from Just Security, we now have evidence from inside the Trump White House that President Trump ordered the freezing of aid to Ukraine, knowing his actions were illegal. The critical new information is found in unredacted emails from the Office of Management and Budget, which explained to alarmed officials at the United States Department of Defense that the freeze was ordered by the President.
In his end of year letter, Chief Justice John Roberts has directly addressed what may be the defining Constitutional issue of our time—whether brute force will govern instead of the law (and by extension: whether the federal courts will remain independent of politics and so able to uphold the principles of the Constitution and the universal rights it protects).
The Chief Justice notes the that the first to hold his post, John Jay, was sidelined from his role as one of the three authors of the Federalist Papers, by a rash of mob violence. He writes:
It is sadly ironic that John Jay’s efforts to educate his fellow citizens about the Fram ers’ plan of government fell victim to a rock thrown by a rioter motivated by a rumor. Happily, Hamilton, Madison, and Jay ulti- mately succeeded in convincing the public of the virtues of the principles embodied in the Constitution. Those principles leave no place for mob violence.
Donald J. Trump has been impeached for crimes against the Constitution. The case specifically involves his now widely documented effort to extort political favors from Ukraine by withholding military aid at a time when Russia is escalating its military aggression against the country. The charges could not be more serious; the stakes could not be more fundamental.
We are now seeing a steadily escalating drumbeat for Trump’s removal among leading conservative institutions and publications.
There is a mythology in Washington that holds that Senators and Representatives owe loyalty only to the people in their state or district. This mythology dates to the time before the Civil War when members of Congress argued their higher loyalty was to their state than to the Constitution. There is another mythology, of similar origins, that holds that judges cannot be held accountable for corrupt actions or for ignoring the law.
The fact is: Every member of Congress swears an oath to the Constitution, not to their political party or to any constituency, and federal judges, under Article 3 of the Constitution may serve only “during good Behaviour”. No officer of the Constitution, in any of the three branches of government, has any power to engage in corrupt activities or activities not prescribed by law.
When Donald Trump sought a personal favor in exchange for the duties of his office, he sold his office, and committed the crime of bribery. When he withheld military aid from any ally in a time of war (leading to actual deaths on the battlefield), to apply pressure to force the delivery of that personal favor, he committed the crime of extortion—effectively a form of forced bribery.
Donald Trump sold his office and abused the power that comes with it. This is a threat to the life of our republic that the founders specifically foresaw. The remedy they provided for a corrupt and lawless chief executive was impeachment—a judicial process carried out by a political (elective) branch of government, in order to ensure the Constitution remains paramount.
He must be impeached and removed.
William Webster, who has served as a federal judge as well as director of both the FBI and the CIA, writes in the New York Times, that he feels “a responsibility to speak out about a dire threat to the rule of law in the country I love.”
Webster adds that:
Order protects liberty, and liberty protects order. Today, the integrity of the institutions that protect our civil order is, tragically, under assault from too many people whose job it should be to protect them.
Read the full article.
Democracy is hard, but also simple; rights supersede powers, always. Any effort by any person or faction to use public office to gain unfair advantage is a crime against democracy. That is how we protect human dignity, freedom, and ingenuity, and ensure we are empowered to build a better future, together.
The following are 10 points of reasoned rebuttal of a Politico article predicting the end of democracy:
