*45th POTUS Donald Trump – Page 53

Should Donald Trump be impeached? The most recent Harvard/CAPS/Harris Poll survey indicates that a majority of American voters say “no.” Only 37 percent of those who participated in this poll support impeachment proceedings against Trump. Sixty percent of Democratic voters, however, say “yes” to impeachment.

According to another poll, the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll, 39 percent of Americans say that the current investigations of Trump should stop, and no further action should be taken. A total of 52 percent of Americans who participated in this poll support some sort of action against Trump: 22 percent (36 percent of Democrats) support impeachment proceedings; 25 percent support continuing the investigation of wrongdoing of Trump; and 5 percent support a public reprimand (censure) of Trump.

The number of Americans overall who support impeachment proceedings has grown by 16 percent since former special counsel Robert Mueller spoke in May about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, 59 Democrats (and one Republican) currently support impeachment hearings. Though House Democrats supporting impeachment are in the minority, that number is slowly growing.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues, however, to try to hold down the calls for impeachment proceedings. Essentially, she would like for Trump to be prosecuted once he leaves office.

Pelosi has maintained that without support of the Republicans, impeachment proceedings would fail, since an impeachment trial takes place in the currently GOP-run Senate. What’s more, impeachment does not mean removal from office. To remove Trump would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate, which is not likely.

Additionally, say many political experts, should Democrats proceed with impeachment hearings and fail, the likely result will be increased support for “victim” Trump, and another term for him as president.

Political strategy should not be what determines whether or not to go forward with impeachment proceedings, but continuing with the current investigations in lieu of impeachment proceedings provides the opportunity for a more complete picture of whether Trump is guilty of any wrongdoing, and if so, to what extent.

“Our investigations are breaking through the Trump administration’s cover-up to get the truth,” said Pelosi. “We want the truth for the American people.”

Impeachment and removal from office might be ideal to many American voters, but if that effort were to fail, all Americans would lose.

Pelosi wants Trump to be prosecuted once he’s out of office: report | Fox News [2019-06-08]

Nancy Pelosi Reportedly Tells Democrats She Wants To See Donald Trump ‘In Prison’ | NBC Nightly News [2019-06-06]

On May 29, Special Counsel Robert Mueller gave his first public statement regarding the findings of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Now that Robert Mueller himself has spoken to the public about the investigation’s findings, little can be left to speculation as to what Mueller and his team discovered, or what they concluded.

Mueller started his ten-minute address with the reminder about why he was appointed: “The Russian military launched a concerted attack on our political system…They stole private information and then released that information through fake online identities and through the organization WikiLeaks. The releases were designed and timed to interfere with our election and to damage a presidential candidate.”

Mueller cited the difficulty that the Justice Department had at times with obtaining information from those who were questioned during the investigation.

“It was critical for us to obtain full and accurate information from every person we questioned. When a subject of an investigation obstructs that investigation or lies to investigators, it strikes at the core of the government’s effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable.”

Robert Mueller stopped short of saying explicitly that Donald Trump was guilty of obstruction of justice.

In the case of Mueller’s report on the investigation, which was released on April 18, 2019, Attorney General William Barr chose to interpret the findings as indicating that there was no basis for charging Trump with obstruction of justice.

Mueller did not, however, state that his team had found no basis for charging Trump. What Mueller said was that they “did not make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime.”

Some Trump supporters pounced on “did not make a determination” as a declaration of Trump’s innocence.

But in his address, Robert Mueller said, “The order appointing me Special Counsel authorized us to investigate actions that could obstruct the investigation. … As set forth in the report, after that investigation if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.”

Mueller went on to explain why he didn’t go further. It was not because the Justice Department had found no evidence of wrongdoing.

“Under longstanding department policy, a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. That is unconstitutional. Even if the charge is kept under seal and hidden from public view, that, too, is prohibited. The special counsel’s office is part of the Department of Justice, and by regulation, it was bound by that department policy. Charging the president with a crime was therefore not an option we could consider.”

As one legal expert, Jessica Levinson, law professor at Loyola Law school said, “If we were talking about Mr. Trump, not President Trump, we’d be talking about an indictment for obstruction of justice.”

Robert Mueller is leaving it up to Congress to enforce the obstruction of justice statute regarding Trump and his efforts to impede the Russia investigation.

WATCH: Robert Mueller makes 1st public statement on Russia probe |
PBS NewsHour [2019-05-29]

Trump reacts to Mueller’s Russia probe statement in angry tirade |
Fox News [2019-05-30]

Category: *45th POTUS Donald Trump

Trump Impeachment: Support Slowly Grows

Robert Mueller’s Statement: If President Trump Were Just “Mr. Trump”