When Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer, under oath, said he broke campaign finance laws at the direction and in coordination with Donald Trump, he directly linked Trump to federal crimes against the integrity of our elections.
However, Trump thinks he is above the law. He used his twitter account and the bully pulpit of his office in an attempt to influence the jury in the case of his former campaign chair, Paul Manafort. Now that Manafort has been convicted of fraud and tax evasion, he is sending signals to Manfort that he will pardon him if he doesn't spill his guts to the investigators.
Although Special Counsel Mueller's investigation has resulted in 35 indictments and five guilty pleas, Trump calls it a "witch hunt" and attacks his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, for removing himself and politics from the investigation. Implicit in all of this is that he wants to fire Mueller and end the investigation of his campaign.
According to Cohen, Trump ordered him to pay Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, prior to the 2016 election, to keep quiet about their sexual affairs with Trump and thus prevent voters from being influenced by that knowledge. Two felony crimes.
In addition, Cohen implicated Trump in the crime of receiving illegal and undisclosed contributions and funnelling the money through the Trump organization.
No matter what his base thinks, Donald Trump is not above the law. Fortunately, our Founding Fathers foresaw a situation like the present, and in Article One of the Constitution, made provisions for the impeachment of a president. In their discussions, they were particularly worried about a president or presidential candidate interfering with elections and the Electoral College.*
The only problem we face at the present time is that we have a majority in the House and the Senate who either are afraid to challenge Trump or are basking in the power of controlling the three branches of government. (They will control the Supreme Court if they are successful in appointing Brett Kavanaugh.)
The irony is that we have the opposite of what the Fathers feared--a majority lording it over a minority. Now we have a minority-elected president and a minority party controlling the House and Senate. A minority lording it over the majority.
That being the case, if citizens want to make Trump subject to the rule of law, they will have to exercise their right and responsibility to vote, thus giving the power back to the majority, and thus returning to a true democracy.
* In addition to impeachment, the Courts ruled during the Watergate era that a president can be indicted.
"Though the President is elected by nationwide ballot, and is often said to represent all the people, he does not embody the nation's sovereignty. He is not above the law's commands: "With all its defects, delays and inconveniences, men have discovered no technique for long preserving free government except that the Executive be under the law...." Sovereignty remains at all times with the people, and they do not forfeit through elections the right to have the law construed against and applied to every citizen."
No comments:
Post a Comment