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I don't think Trump is going to be impeached. Impeached by whom? I don't think there is that much integrity in the whole system put together. I think the Don ald will wander on until the term ends, will probably be re-elected, and it all will go on for another four years. What is wrong in this country has as much to do with the inertia of the people as it does with miscreant politicians and administrators.
President Trump Did Not Obstruct Justice
By Alan Dershowitz
A dangerous argument is now being put forward by some Democratic ideologues. Namely that President Trump should be indicted for the crime of obstructing justice because he fired FBI Director James Comey.
Whatever one may think of the president’s decision to fire Comey as a matter of policy, there is no legitimate basis for concluding that the president engaged in a crime by exercising his statutory and constitutional authority to fire director Comey. As Comey himself wrote in his letter to the FBI, no one should doubt the authority of the president to fire the Director for any reason or no reason.
It should not be a crime for a public official, whether the president or anyone else, to exercise his or her statutory and constitutional authority to hire or fire another public official. For something to be a crime there must be both an actus reus and mens rea — that is, a criminal act accompanied by a criminal state of mind.
Even assuming that President Trump was improperly motivated in firing Comey, motive alone should never constitute a crime. There should have to be an unlawful act. And exercising constitutional and statutory power should not constitute the actus reus of a crime. Otherwise the crime would place the defendant’s thoughts on trial, rather than his actions.
Civil libertarians, and all who care about due process and justice, should be concerned about the broad scope of the statute that criminalizes "obstruction of justice." Some courts have wrongly interpreted this accordion-like law so broadly as to encompass a mixture of lawful and unlawful acts. It is dangerous and wrong to criminalize lawful behavior because it may have been motivated by evil thoughts.
People who care about the rule of law, regardless of how they feel about President Trump, should not be advocating a broadening of obstruction of justice to include the lawful presidential act of firing the FBI Director.
Such an open ended precedent could be used in the future to curtail the liberties of all Americans. So let’s put this nonsense behind us and not criminalize policy differences, as extremists in both parties have tried to do.
Both Republican and Democratic partisans often resort to criminal law as a way of demonizing their political enemies. "Lock her up," was the cry of Republican partisans against Hillary Clinton regarding her misuse of her email server. Now "obstruction of justice" is the "lock him up" cry of partisan Democrats who disagree with President Trump’s decision to fire Comey.
I opposed the criminalization of policy differences when former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Congressman Tom Delay and Sen. Bob Menendez were indicted; and I strongly oppose the investigation now being conducted against Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Criminal law should be used as the last resort against elected officials, not as the opening salvo in a political knife-fight. There is no place in a democracy for elastic statutes that can be stretched to fit lawful conduct with which political opponents disagree. If they are allowed to be stretched today to cover your political enemies, they could be stretched tomorrow to go after your political friends.
The debate over the proprietary of the president’s actions, about which I have opined repeatedly, should continue. But let’s take the allegations of criminal obstruction of justice out of this important debate. There is more than enough fodder for a debate over the merits and demerits of the president’s actions without muddying the waters with politically motivated charges of criminality.
Partisanship seems to have no limits these days. Both parties are equally at fault, as are extremists among the public and within the media. It is getting harder and harder to have a nuanced debate about complex political issues. Everything is either evil or good. Nothing has elements of both.
Actions either deserve criminal indictment or the Nobel Prize. Nobody benefits from this kind of ideological shouting match. So let’s agree to disagree about important issues, but let’s not distort the debate with extremist slogans like "lock her up" or "obstruction of justice." We are better than that.
This article was updated by Professor Dershowitz, at his request.
Clearly Trump fired Comey because he was pressing forward with the Russian connection. The thing that baffles me is the part of his statement that ends ".... it's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won." An election Hillary should have won? I wonder what kind of Freudian significance this could have, if not an admission that someone had their thumb on the scale.
Knowingly and with intent!
Trump has been used as a disposable conduit for evangelical religious nutjob efforts to introduce religion into politics in contravention of the Consitution
Pence is their man
Likely pres 46 quite soon
Yup, a waste of breath. Arrogant, insolent, ignorant -- the embodiment of Foxed-up Republicanism. "Idiot, incompetent, liar" -- the three most common words the American people use to describe the fake president (Quinnipiac's latest poll). In this case, correlation does imply causation.
Contact him on this email (boostcapital@surgical.net) I was in need of a loan of $ 200,000.00 to start my life all over as a single parents with 2 kids, I met this honest and GOD fearing loan lender online MR Tom Brandly that I have a loan of $ 200,000.00 US Dollars, he is indeed a GOD fearing man, working with a reputable loan company. If you are in need of a loan and you are 100% sure to pay back the loan please contact him on this email (boostcapital@surgical.net) and inform them Mike Wilson directed you .. Thanks. God Bless you ......
Contact him on this email (boostcapital@surgical.net) I was in need of a loan of $ 200,000.00 to start my life all over as a single parents with 2 kids, I met this honest and GOD fearing loan lender online MR Tom Brandly that I have a loan of $ 200,000.00 US Dollars, he is indeed a GOD fearing man, working with a reputable loan company. If you are in need of a loan and you are 100% sure to pay back the loan please contact him on this email (boostcapital@surgical.net) and inform them Mike Wilson directed you .. Thanks. God Bless you ...
@ 8:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9USjKIpEIj4 Todd asks Graham to look into Trump golf course LLC for Russian link. Graham says he has no reason to!
Hey, not only am I, but I am thinging into the future right now.
Thinging about the departure of justice Ginsburg and Kennedy.
Thinging about how the leftie/socialists will dream up today's engineered drama.
Lot's of stuff to thing about.
You are wasting your breathe. Diane is incapable of thinging in the future tense.
deepspace: Good point about our insane military industrial spy complex spending/budget. Can you imagine if even just 25% of that money got redirected to a single- payer health insurance program?
How many trillions have been wasted on the Cheney/Bush war? ...and then the Teapublicans have the audacity to blame the federal debt on the democratic party. Why the hell didn't the republicans just write a check out to Cheney and Halliburton for a few billion instead of going to war? That's all they wanted anyway....a few billion. Instead we killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people...still are..... and it's costing trillions. Thanks Dickwood!
I'm sure that Diane in her foxmerized alternative reality blames Obama for it all.
It'll be more than pissed off progressives on medications when the market crashes Diane. Panic will set in and Trump, or probably Pence by the time it happens, will be helpless...the Tea Party will block all legislation to stop a Great Depression...mark my word. Watch how well your free market works then? LMAO
Whoa, you left out your usual "leftie/socialists" chant! Good for you! Heeding sage advice from liberals must be a humbling experience for an old right-wing troll, but it's a baby step on that long journey to credibility. Now, quit watching Faux News and add a touch of substance to your nags. It's Mother's Day; think of your grandchildren and their future.
Not quite Christmas morning because Mr. Ed left out his usual feedbag of pejoratives but most of the rest of you with your outburst of bile did contribute to making it a wonderful mothers day.
Thanks, from all the capitalist anti depressant manufacturers that you clearly keep in business.
Rg, clearly you don't know wtf you're talking about. Where there is nothing is between your ears. Fox has totally Focked your head. Now you, a driveling idiot, want to tell us what's what? Puleeezzzz What good are you?
That's right; Greg Palast investigations and Interstate Crosscheck should be the front-and-center political issues, repeated every day in every news cycle until Republican election fraud is outed, the system is reformed from top to bottom, and free and fair elections can be guaranteed and monitored by the U.N.
...And that's exactly why it will never happen; the United States is no longer a functioning representative democracy!
Of all the reasons why Democrats got clobbered -- screwing Bernie over, not focusing on workers' issues, right-wing lies, the email scandal, Comey's big fat mouth, Russian hacking, Trump's collusion, unequal airtime, Obama pushing TPP, Hillary's Wall Street paid speeches, her poorly run campaign, yada, yada, yada -- the Republicans' massive effort to suppress and purge millions upon millions of Democratic voters in 30-plus states, especially in Electoral College key states, is by far the number one reason.
But most people still don't know who Greg Palast is, what Interstate Crosscheck is, or even what the difference between "voter fraud" and "election fraud" is.
Where ... the ... f**k ... is ... the ... Democratic ... Party!?
Why are they letting it ride? And, most importantly, why is the Congressional Progressive Caucus still consigned to B-Team status???
Simply waiting for Trump and the Republicans to implode is not a winning strategy! Corporate media and election fraud will keep the Party of Liars in power f-o-r-e-v-e-r!
Ther ought to be a fund put together to put Greg Palasts latest film which explains all about Inter-state crosscheck or the Republicans stealing elections on prime time Tv. there ought to be a petitionwith millions of signatures sent to MSNBC which touts itself as a progressive TV Station that unless they discuss Kris kobachs interstate cross check program and how it stole the Presidency and the US Senate for the republicans in2016 and I mean at length constantly and consistently with numerous appearances by Greg Palast that we will never watch their Network ever again.
Control the vote. Control the Media. Pick who is going to conduct your Russian ties investigation. This one is so bad that AG Sessions, who recuesed himself from this case, because he lied to Congress about Russian meetings, picks the FBI replacement. It goes on and on everyday something new.
Lies and hate do not "make America great."
Well said, 2950-10K! I was all in for Bernie too. In hindsight, since the Democratic leadership torpedoed his campaign anyway, he might have had a real shot at winning with a third party.
Even though he couldn't flesh out his stance on foreign policy to my satisfaction (no doubt because of our pervasive war-mongering culture), I'm convinced that, given an empathetic nature coupled to a tough-minded political intelligence, he would have seriously worked toward world peace. Those efforts would have resulted in that illusive "peace dividend" and freed up our budget, so that we could have concentrated on fulfilling a healthy domestic agenda, which is not the agenda of the ruthless transnational billionaires. Instead, we are in the grip of a madman.
One of the least discussed yet most consequential patterns of American foreign policy, which both major parties and most of the electorate always rally around despite their internal divisions, is imperialistic militarism. Start a war, kill an enemy, and people cheer -- Republicans and Democrats alike. Our government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world, which instills pride and patriotism here at home while striking fear and unrest in the world, ensuring an endless supply of "enemies." It's a self-feeding loop that's only getting worse.
Brief interludes of peace are aberrations of human history, abstract notions now relegated to the Sunday pulpit and the idealistic minds of the naive. Nevermore, it seems, will those in power give peace a chance, if they have ever. A constant state of warfare intoxicates the masses, and economic oppression is the price we willingly pay. Death's-head is our calling card.
Laying claim to more and more of the world's dwindling resources to maintain economic dominance by a tiny class of oligarchs impoverishes the world and guarantees the ultimate collapse of civilization. We are nearly there. Global warming will only exacerbate our violent instincts and hasten the end. The rise and fall of Homo sapiens will be but a moment in time.
Stephen Hawking estimates another hundred years. A massive movement of widespread awareness -- derived from the serious introspection of each individual -- is humankind's one last chance at peace and survival. As the sand in the hourglass rapidly runs out, that possibility is as remote as ever.
Hartmann, if your ok with your dumocrats in congress wasting time and money chasing after russian pixie dream-hackers, then you should be ok with the effort to root out fraudulent voting
You would sing a different tune if you owned property or a business, but clock-punching, rental tenant types will never get it
Hartmann you know the community organizer gang identified 7 arab countries with majority muzzie populations that are known to harbor terrorist training camps. Make America Great!
Kobach's interstate crosscheck has been blacked out by the corpse media so well that Trump hasn't even had a chance to call it fake news yet. Crosscheck, Putin, voter suppression, digital vote flipping, all reasons to have NATO oversee the re-election after the last one is declared invalid.
I also have family members and friends who voted for Trump based entirely on foxaganda, and I have have told them to their faces that they don't know sht about political reality/truth...my exact words to them. I warned them long before they voted to judge Trump on what he actually does, not what he says he will do in the future....they didn't listen and now we we're all fffd.
Has anyone thought about why the Tea Party isn't a third Party? Does a conservative third Party exist? My theory: The billionaire/fascists realize they would get their asses kicked if a conservative third party existed.
I'm onboard with Bernie and the progressive caucus. In fact, after over 40 years of voting independent, I had to register with the Democratic Party last year so I could vote for Bernie in the primary....I didn't want to register as a Democratic Party citizen, but the difference between the democratic progressives and the conservative teabaggers is so extreme I just had to do what I had to do to vote for Bernie.