Impeach Trump — Or Any President — Who Makes Illegal War

Phony impeachments have if anything been used as a mechanism to push the president toward imperial attacks.

Rep. Al Green is finally moving on impeaching Trump for his illegal attack on Venezuela. See video.

Green rightly argues that just because Bush got away with taking out Noriega in the illegal “Panama Deception” is no good reason that Trump should be allowed to get away with his illegal action now. Allowing him to do so helps ensure that future presidents will conduct future criminal attacks.

And the case is stronger than the case of Nicaragua as Marjorie Cohn notes in her recent piece “Trump Will Try to Defend Aggression Toward Venezuela. It’s Still Illegal” that “a significant difference between the Noriega and Maduro cases is that before Bush ordered the arrest of Noriega, Panama’s general assembly had formally declared war against the United States.”

So, what should happen is that Green should work with a Republican — Massie probably — since MTG is resigning — to move toward impeachment. Further, Green should pledge that if a Democrat should be elected president that he will back impeaching them for illegal invasion as well.

Unless Green is just interested in performative, partisan impeachments. That’s been the standard operating procedure: To have partisan impeachments — over things like lying about sex and Jan 6 — have effectively made impeachment a partisan plaything rather than an instrument of constitutional government. In fact, such phony impeachments have if anything been used as a mechanism to push the president toward imperial attacks.

So you have lots of Congresspeople saying the president is acting illegally but pathetically not raising impeachment. Like Ted Lieu, Jim McGovern, and Jamie Raskin to name a few. Some claim to oppose attack without calling it illegal like AIPAC tool Glenn Ivey who purports to represent my district in Maryland.

Here are some resources from serious legal scholars on impeachment over war powers — from Francis Boyle:

U.S. Troops in Israel; Bombing Yemen “Impeachable”

and from Bruce Fein:

Trump “Has Usurped” Congressional War Powers, “Summit of Impeachable Offenses”

Additionally, Decensored News notes:

Biden in 2007: President has ‘no constitutional authority’ to bomb Iran without congressional approval

Biden: “But let me tell you, I have written an extensive legal memorandum with the help of a group of legal scholars who are sort of a stable of people, the best-known constitutional scholars in America, because for 17 years I was chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

“I asked them to put together [for] me a draft, which I’m now literally riding between towns editing, that I want to make clear and submit to the United States Senate pointing out the president has no authority to unilaterally attack Iran. And I want to make it clear, I want it on the record, and I want to make it clear, if he does, as chairman of the foreign relations committee and former chair of the judiciary committee, I will move to impeach him.”

I haven’t been able to locate the document, but assuming Biden wasn’t lying, someone should.