Is Trump’s Public Blackmailing and Slandering of a Senator a High Crime?
Update, May 14, 2018: Today Trump tweeted that “leakers are traitors and cowards”. This is just what Trump did publicly below. Being a traitor just has to be the “High Crime” required for completing an impeachment trial. Trump’s “leak” is worse than one of a minor insult, since the imagination of what could stop a re-election in today’s climate must be really major. Trump apparently downed his own slander with the first part of today’s tweet: “The so-called leaks coming out of the White House are a massive over exaggeration”. You just can’t make this stuff up!
At Trump’s Fox broadcast Washington, Michigan rally, he attacked Montana’s Senator Jon Tester, the leading Democrat on the Veteran Affairs Committee, saying that he, Trump, knew things about Tester that would guarantee that Tester would not be re-elected this year. But he did not state them.
This is another example of Trump, who speaks from the Office of the President, of violating the due process requirement of the Fifth Amendment. It is out-and-out slander of Senator Tester, which can’t be erased, because there is no specific charge, no source, and no court proceedings to determine the truth.
The one oath that Trump had to swear to to become President was to uphold the Constitution of the United States. That means the Fifth Amendment as well. News shows reshow Trump’s many previous assaults on the Fifth Amendment, where he says that anyone who takes the Fifth is guilty. Then, when Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen had his apartments raided, Trump asked what happened to Due Process? Trump also repeated violated the Fifth and the independence of the Justice Department when he led crowds to chant “Lock Her Up” to Hillary, and similarly for Comey.
Trump is hanging on to the Senate by two votes. He is desperate to defeat any Democrat that is up for reelection this year, such as Senator Tester. Rear Admiral Roddy Jackson, had already declined his nomination to head the VA, as Trump had advised him to. Jackson was now out of the news. But Trump dragged Jackson and all of the allegations back into the news when he used that as the excuse to slander Senator Tester. Trump was making political hay out of it, for his own political benefit. That is seriously disrespectful to Rear Admiral Jackson.
As a result, there are now further charges against Jackson for violating the patient confidentiality of VP Mike Pence’s wife, Karen Pence. This now drags down the VP and his wife, as Trump does to all of those around him.
In the Constitution, the Senate is an independent body charged with advising and consenting on the main Presidential appointments. Senator Tester was carrying out that duty as the ranking member of the Veteran’s Affairs Committee. The Republican head of that Committee was also in agreement with researching Jackson’s appointment. It may well be a High Crime for any President to slander and blackmail any Senator from fulfilling their Constitutional duty to Advise and Consent.
We really have to insist that the President respect the Constitution, and the independence of the FBI and the Justice Department, as all other President have.
