Our Founding Fathers had a fierce debate on how best to safeguard our nation from a tyrannical executive. It is this underlying debate that must inform our understanding of what is meant by the phrase ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’.
po.st/tumZWF via @SmithsonianMag
po.st/tumZWF via @SmithsonianMag
The Founding Fathers wished to protect us from a president who
1/obtains his office through nefarious means;
2/misuses his power to circumvent checks on his criminality;
3/betrays the public trust thru ‘maladministration’ of the govt; and
4/otherwise violates the Constitution
1/obtains his office through nefarious means;
2/misuses his power to circumvent checks on his criminality;
3/betrays the public trust thru ‘maladministration’ of the govt; and
4/otherwise violates the Constitution
On Sept 8, 1787, Mason asked his fellow delegates a question of historic importance. Why, Mason asked, were treason and bribery the only grounds in the draft Constitution for impeaching the president? Treason, he warned, wouldn’t include “attempts to subvert the Constitution.”
4/After a short debate, the convention agreed to the language proposed in the Mason’s Plan: the executive would “be removable on impeachment and conviction of malpractice or neglect of duty” – a broad standard that the delegates would later refine.
5/Madison argued that the Constitution needed a provision “for defending the community against the incapacity, negligence, or perfidy. . .” Waiting to vote him out of office in a general election wasn’t good enough.
6/And limiting impeachment to treason and bribery cases alone, Mason warned “will not reach many great and dangerous offences.” Mason proposed adding language to address “maladministration” and other violations of the public trust as a causes for impeaching the president.
7/ They agreed it would be an impeachable offense for the president to violate the Constitution’s emoluments clause by taking payments from a foreign power, establishing that violations of the Constitution itself would constitute high crimes and misdemeanors
8/Mason was concerned the president could use his pardon power to stop inquiries into crimes against his admin. “He may pardon crimes (against) himself. . . If he has the power of granting pardons before indictment, or conviction, may he not stop inquiry and prevent detection?”
9/Impeachment, Madison replied,could impose the necessary check to a president’s abuse of his pardon power. “If the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person,” Madison stated, “and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House can impeach him
10/Is our Dem leadership purposely misleading us? Why do they say they must wait for Mueller’s report before impeaching Trump? The list of impeachable offenses grows longer every day - SERIOUS offenses/crimes that have nothing to do with Russian interference in the election.
11/Why is @RepJerryNadler waiting for Mueller?Maladministration; misappropriation of funds;betrayal of the public trust;violations of the emoluments clause;misuse of the pardon power-these are just some of the offenses the Founding Fathers meant by ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’
