Trump Impeachment Watch

Robert Reich
38 mins ·
Possible ties between Trump and Putin to influence the outcome of the election are revealing themselves. Intelligence officials last week presented Trump with claims by Russian operatives that they have compromising information on him, according to CNN. Trump was also presented with allegations of an "exchange of information" during the campaign between his surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.
Today, during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Russia's meddling in November's election, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) pointed to an interview shortly after the election in which a top Russian diplomat said his government had had "contacts" with the Trump campaign. Wyden then asked FBI Director James Comey, if the FBI was investigating these reported relationships, and urged the FBI director to provide an unclassified answer to his question before Inauguration Day, saying the American people "have a right to know" whether the FBI is investigating possible ties between the Trump team and Russia.
On Sunday, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham also discussed the possibility of an investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia. Asked about the possibility of a probe on NBC's "Meet the Press," the South Carolina senator said: "I believe that it's happening."
If it turns out that Russian operatives have compromising information on Trump, and that he and his campaign collaborated with Russia on intervening in the presidential campaign on his behalf, that's treason.

This is NPR's version of the Guardian piece I shared in the OP. McCain is cited to have a leading role in sharing documents with US intelligence agencies that allege Trump-Russia collusion.

This may not be the case that takes us to trial, but McCain has got to have some degree of Republican support for this.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/10/509223836/trump-denies-allegations-of-secret-ties-collusion-between-campaign-and-russia?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20170110

Are ya gonna take my bet?

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984/Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.pdfURL: http://able2know.org/topic/355218-234

Admittedly an allegation but in the news media and of course the Donald says its a bunch of lies.

Wow! Reich is a birther. Go figure. I wouldn't have called that one.

I'd say you are being a tad premature Lash.

All that over an unverified document... tsk.

Time will tell. At present there are allegations and speculations, nothing specific which has been proven or even has sharp enough teeth or talons to grasp any proof. It takes hard proof to get an impeachment.

I thought we's already closed that deal.

Proceedings begin within a year. Trial ends in removal.

The bet is always open...Must be convicted before end of year.

That's ridiculous, unless it's a very minor offence, very few trials end up with a conviction in less than a year, justice takes time. Even an open and shut case like Dylann Roof's took over a year. He committed the crime on June 17, 2015, was arrested the next day and confessed that day but wasn't convicted until December 2016.

Even if he is guilty Trump won't confess, and a conviction will most likely take two years at the least.

You can't have much confidence in Trump either if this is the only bet you're going to take.

That was our sticking point. Those trials take too long. Isn't it enough to say he'd eventually be removed by impeachment?

I am confident it'll begin within the year.

I think the Republican establishment would love to jettison Trump. They just needed a reality TV star for a winning campaign.

And ******* Hillary Clinton.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/12/donald-trump-conflicts-of-interest-impeach/amp?client=safari

Gingrich's solution to insurmountable presidential conflicts of interest?? Presidential pardons and changing the law through executive order and other cool fun dictatorial shenanigans...

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Crazy excerpt

Newt Gingrich, former House Speaker and current Trump booster, has a different plan. He acknowledges that his billionaire buddy may have a tough time unravelling himself from his multi-billion-dollar business. “It’s a very real problem,” Gingrich said in an NPR interview on Monday. “I don’t think this is something minor. I think certainly in an age that people are convinced that government corruption is widespread both in the U.S. and around the world, you can’t just shrug and walk off from it.” His solution, though, is perhaps the very definition of government corruption. He advised that should the president-elect run up against issues with ethics laws, he should just change those laws in order to suit him, using his presidential pardon powers to absolve a multitude of potential sins.

“In the case of the president, he has a broad ability to organize the White House the way he wants to. He also has, frankly, the power of the pardon,” he said. “It’s a totally open power. He could simply say, ‘Look, I want them to be my advisers. I pardon them if anyone finds them to have behaved against the rules. Period. Technically, under the Constitution, he has that level of authority.”

That's to open ended. Pick a date.

I'm ready to bet it won't happen. In a few weeks Trump will have amassed enough embarassing material re. key Washington lawmakers to blackmail them and fend off any impeachment attempt. There's no counterpower in the age of universal spying.

The only possible way for Trump to be impeached before the 2018 elections would be for their to be unassailable evidence that he was guilty of true high crimes and misdemeanors. The scurrilous and entirely unsubstantiated charges being made by Buzzfeed and CNN in no way amount to that, and the allegations have been in the hands of the DNC and the MSM for months prior to the election. If anyone was able to find any evidence of their truth, we would have learned of it.

If Trump opponents keep this sh*t up until Nov 2018, Congress won't change hands, and then even a coup by the Democrats won't be possible.

The emotional laments, with the Democrats losing, is palpable. It is more likely that the Democratic Party re-evaluates their platforms and realizes that they will need more electoral college votes, and theerefore need to put some of the progressive agenda on the proverbial back burner. That might be a more interesting thread: which progressive agendas will be jettisoned?

Or, in effect, which demographics will be less pandered to?

As much as I dislike Trump, I don't see a lot to be gained from replacing him with a teabagger as crazy as Pence.