Day 825: Trump thinks SCOTUS can bail him out of impeachment. It can’t.

For years, Republicans have tried to brand themselves the party of constitutionalists. The ones that look to America’s forefathers and falsely demagogue Democrats for stomping on the work of Thomas Jefferson et al. Fast forward to 2016, Donald Trump is elected and suddenly the GOP has struggled to explain away how their party leader is so unlearned about the U.S. Constitution.

That ignorance was laid bare yet again Wednesday when Trump claimed he would use the Supreme Court to bail him out of potential impeachment charges.

Trump is very wrong in at least six ways.

1. The Supreme Court can’t bail Trump out. The “sole power of impeachment” resides with the House of Representatives, as the Constitution notes at Article I, Section 2, Clause 5. From there, the Senate would try the impeachments in a trial. If he tried to get a court to strike down articles of impeachment, he would quickly lose.
2. Despite saying there have been “no High Crimes and Misdemeanors,” presidents have been impeached for far less. Andrew Johnson was impeached for, among other things, appointing Cabinet members and “[b]ringing disgrace and ridicule to the presidency.” Richard Nixon had articles of impeachment drawn up against him that included “making or causing to be made false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States…” (He resigned before impeachment could be voted on.)
3. The Robert Mueller report details plenty of obstruction by Trump and collusion — even if not provable criminal conspiracy — by his campaign. Whether the House wants to pursue those actions or not, they have plenty of ammunition.
4. The contents in the Mueller report were investigated by both Democrats and Republicans. Mueller himself is a lifelong Republican.
5. The Mueller report more than paid for itself by winning convictions and asset seizures against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
6. Congress isn’t a “last hope” for culpability. Per internal DOJ rules that Mueller and attorney general William Barr believe are applicable, a sitting president can’t be charged with a crime while in office. Therefore, the only recourse for presidential punishment is via impeachment.

Trump is terrified about the prospect of impeachment. He bashed Bill Clinton for being impeached while running against Hillary Clinton. Whether he can spin it as politically motivated or not, if he is impeached, he’d embarrassingly join an inglorious list of presidents that he’d prefer to avoid being linked to.

Using the Lindsey Graham (R-SC) standard, Trump has plenty to be afraid of.

825 days in, 637 to go

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