House Lawyers: Trump ‘Obstructing Own Impeachment,’ Acting ‘Above The Law’

President Donald Trump (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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House lawyers said in a filing Wednesday that President Donald Trump is currently acting “above the law” in his attempts to “obstruct his own impeachment” by barring witnesses from testifying before various committees.

According to Politico, the filing pertains to the lawyers’ months-long attempt to compel former White House lawyer Don McGahn to testify after the White House ordered him not to.

Though that aim is tied to the Russia scandal, the lawyers said that his behavior applies to the Ukraine one as well.

“If the President could deprive the committee of information required for its impeachment inquiry into his own misconduct, the President could potentially thwart his accountability for that conduct,” they wrote. “No further discussion will resolve an impasse dictated by the President himself.”

Trump’s administration has tried to muzzle multiple witnesses in the unfurling Ukrainian scandal with varying levels of success. Some, like former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, dismissed the administration’s warnings and testified anyway.

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Notable Replies

  1. “People are busy casting their vote for money along with protesting against corruption and bribe. Crazy people, crazy world.” ― Dr. P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

  2. He wants to rule as a king?

    The Constitution does not prescribe any specific procedures or requirements for removal of a regent. Whatever works.

  3. Avatar for ghost ghost says:

    The benefit of the formal impeachment inquiry is that the courts will now expedite these cases. We can hope for a flood of decisions rebuking the administration’s arguments that Trump is above the law and holding that the claimed broad and absolute executive privilege does not exist.

  4. Odd reporting, the cited Politico article does not say which court the filing was with, nor does TPM.

  5. For a flood of rebukes to occur there would need to have been a flood of Dem suits filed preceding the rebukes, which there aren’t.

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