Impeachment? Not so fast without missing element of criminal intent
By Jonathan Turley, opinion contributor — 04/20/19 10:00 AM EDT
The release of the report by special counsel Robert Mueller has unleashed a furious debate within the Democratic Party over the need to commence impeachment proceedings against President Trump. Mueller was anything but subtle in his pointed discussion of how Congress can deal with the “corrupt exercise of the powers of office†within “our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law.â€
In writing those words, Mueller put Democrats in Congress in a more uncomfortable position than he did Trump. Indeed, Trump seems quite satisfied with defining victory as avoiding indictment. Democratic leaders want to appear eager to impeach without actually impeaching Trump. Mueller, however, triggered impeachment frenzy but left out a key element necessary to achieve it. That element is criminal intent.
A study by a conservative group, Media Research Center, found that impeachment was referenced on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC more than 300 times in the first 18 hours after the report was released, with CNN alone accounting for 148 times. Many Democratic members of Congress ran on impeachment during the 2018 midterm elections.
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https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/439830-impeachment-not-so-fast-without-missing-element-of-criminal-intent
