30 September 19
FOCUS: Laurence H. Tribe | The House Must Flex Its Constitutional Muscles to Get to Trump
Laurence H. Tribe, Guardian UK
Tribe writes: "If the House is going to impeach the president, it better have a plan."
Laurence H. Tribe, Guardian UK
Tribe writes: "If the House is going to impeach the president, it better have a plan."
EXCERPT:
Moreover, talk of congressional strategy and procedure is boring. That’s true even for law professors like me. It’s one thing to believe that impeachment is necessary; it’s quite another to think about how the House will carry it out.
But here, process is profoundly important. As Joshua Matz and I explain in our book, To End a Presidency: “Procedure is where romantic ideas about legislators as the voice of the people collide with institutional reality. Good process is crucial to making thoughtful, accurate, and legitimate decisions. It’s through these rules that Congress evaluates the evidence and structures its deliberations … Impeachments must therefore be fair and appear fair.”
First and foremost, that means undertaking a thorough investigation. The House cannot make a reasoned judgment about whether to impeach – and what to include in articles of impeachment – without a clear understanding of what exactly Trump (and those in his orbit) did wrong. And there is clearly much more to this story than is yet known publicly.
Don’t get me wrong: we already know a lot from the rough transcript of Trump’s call with Ukraine’s president, the whistleblower complaint, Trump’s public statements, and credible news reports. That information alone supports a powerful case for impeachment. At minimum, it shifts the burden to Trump to disprove the obvious inference that he abused power, violated his oath, betrayed the nation, and acted corruptly.
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