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Trump threatens Supreme Court fight with Democrats over impeachment

Source: News Corp Australia Network:
April 24, 2019 at 17:31
US President Donald Trump. Picture: AFPSource:AFP
US President Donald Trump. Picture: AFPSource:AFP
Donald Trump has vowed to go directly to the US Supreme Court if the Democrats try to impeach him, however his threat may have already encountered a major obstacle.

US President Donald Trump said he’ll go directly to the US Supreme Court “if the partisan Dems” ever try to impeach him.

But Mr Trump’s strategy could run into a roadblock: the high court itself, which said in 1993 that the framers of the US Constitution didn’t intend for the courts to have the power to review impeachment proceedings.
 

President Donald Trump says he “won” the Mueller report. Picture: AP
President Donald Trump says he “won” the Mueller report. Picture: APSource:AP

 

The Supreme Court ruled that impeachment and removal from office is Congress’ duty alone. “I DID NOTHING WRONG,” Mr Trump tweeted.

He said not only are there no “High Crimes and Misdemeanours,” one of the bases for impeachment outlined in the Constitution, “there are no Crimes by me at all.”

He alleged Democrats committed crimes and said they’re looking “to Congress as last hope!” because “We waited for Mueller and WON.”

That was a reference to special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
 

Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Picture: AP
Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Picture: APSource:AP

 

The Mueller report did not establish a criminal conspiracy between Mr Trump’s campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election but revealed that Mr Trump tried to seize control of the Russia investigation.

In the report, released last week, Mr Mueller laid out multiple episodes in which Mr Trump directed other people to influence or curtail the investigation after the special counsel’s 2017 appointment, but he said those efforts “were mostly unsuccessful,” largely because “the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests.” Mr Trump’s threat to “head to the US Supreme Court” would seem to face an uphill battle.
 

       

In his 1993 opinion, Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote that a federal judge’s appeal of his impeachment was not reviewable by courts.

He said the framers of the Constitution “did not intend for the courts to have the power to review impeachment proceedings.”

If the courts were allowed to review impeachments, Mr Rehnquist wrote, it could plunge the country into “months, or perhaps years, of chaos.”
 

White House counsel Don McGahn says Donald Trump likely engaged in obstruction. Picture: AP
White House counsel Don McGahn says Donald Trump likely engaged in obstruction. Picture: APSource:AP

 

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, who subpoenaed former White House counsel Don McGahn, said this week in a statement that Mr Mueller’s report, even in redacted form, “outlines substantial evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction and other abuses.” But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has urged divided Democrats to focus on fact-finding rather than the prospect of any impeachment proceedings after the damning details of Mr Mueller’s report.
 

Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi arrives on the red carpet for the Time 100 Gala at the Lincoln Centre in New York. Picture: AFP
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi arrives on the red carpet for the Time 100 Gala at the Lincoln Centre in New York. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

 

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