A far-left constitutional law professor at Harvard University has called for President Donald Trump to be impeached over his decision to fire former FBI director James Comey, arguing the president has “shown no respect for the rule of law.”
“The time has come for Congress to launch an impeachment investigation of President Trump for obstruction of justice,” claimed professor Laurence Tribe in an op-ed in The Washington Post.
Tribe argued President Trump already committed impeachable offenses prior to the firing of Comey, specifically with his “brazen defiance of the foreign emoluments clause.”
“It will require serious commitment to constitutional principle, and courageous willingness to put devotion to the national interest above self-interest and party loyalty, for a Congress of the president’s own party to initiate an impeachment inquiry,” Tribe added. “It would be a terrible shame if only the mounting prospect of being voted out of office in November 2018 would sufficiently concentrate the minds of representatives and senators today.”
Tribe defended his call for Trump’s impeachment during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
“He’s shown no respect for the rule of law. He regards himself as above the law. He thinks it’s appropriate to essentially have a job interview with the FBI director. As we now know, the FBI director wanted to be reappointed. And the president essentially told him, ‘well, we’ll see. It depends, will you plead loyalty to me?’ Well, kings and monarchs and dictators seek that kind of loyalty,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“He essentially said, if you assure me that this meddlesome Russia investigation will go away, maybe I’ll keep you on.”
Tribe, who cofounded the far-left American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) along with Peter Rubin, the former legal counsel to Al Gore during the 2000 presidential election recount in Florida, suggested Trump’s firing of Comey constituted obstruction of justice and warranted impeachment.
“That’s obstruction of justice,” Tribe continued. “Even within the technical term of the criminal code. But they’re not relevant. The most relevant thing, because impeachment is our system’s last resort for someone who treats himself or herself as above the law, most relevant thing is whether this president, by his recent course of action, on top of his violations of the foreign corruption or Emoluments Clause, this president has shown that he cannot be trusted to remain within the law.”
“And our constitution’s last resort for situations of that kind is to get the person out of office.”
In addition to his work with the ACS, Tribe served as a judicial advisor for then-candidate Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election, ultimately being appointed as the Senior Counselor for Access to Justice in February, 2010.
Tribe joined fellow Harvard professor Larry Lessig in founding “The Electors Trust,” an organization dedicated to providing pro bono legal support for faithless electors of the Electoral College who were planning to cast votes in opposition to President-elect Donald Trump.
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