Editorial: Impeach Trump. No American is above the rule of law

This country’s founders made clear no one is above the rule of law when they wrote Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution. They empowered Congress with the ability to impeach the president, vice president and all civil officers of the United States for “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

The evidence uncovered during the recent House Intelligence Committee hearings is clear. President Trump abused his power by withholding funds from Ukraine and then pressuring its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to investigate a potential Democratic opponent and a discredited theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election. He also obstructed Congress by blocking testimony and refusing to provide documents in response to House subpoenas.

Trump’s actions for his personal gain, identified by the House Judiciary Committee in its articles of impeachment, meet the standard for high crimes and misdemeanors set in the Constitution. It is exactly the sort of “abuse or violation of some public trust” that Alexander Hamilton warned about in the Federalist Papers.

Trump should be impeached.

Senate Republicans are unlikely to convict Trump. Their willingness to ignore the president’s abuses makes impeachment by the House all the more essential. Ignoring the behavior would give tacit approval for Trump to continue putting personal gain ahead of America’s best interests. Impeachment serves as a reminder to this president, future presidents and the American people that the founders’ intent remains intact.

As we head toward the Senate trial, it’s unfortunate that partisanship continues to overshadow evidence. Hamilton also warned us about this moment, when “there will always be the greatest danger that the decision will be regulated more by the comparative strength of parties, than by the real demonstrations of innocence or guilt.” We urge all members of the House and Senate to first consider the facts.

In Trump’s case, credible witnesses testified that the administration, acting at the president’s behest, withheld $391 million in aid allocated by Congress to help Ukraine secure its borders from the ongoing threat of Russian invasion. The United States had already provided more than $1 billion in aid to Ukraine since Russian-backed separatists invaded the country’s eastern border in 2014.

Then came the infamous July 25 phone call, in which Trump asked Zelenskiy to “do us a favor” by launching the investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden and the discredited theory about Ukraine election meddling.

Yes, the money was eventually sent to Ukraine, but only after a whistleblower called attention to the president’s effort to extort a foreign government for the sole purpose of personal political gain. This is exactly what the founders feared when they wrote the impeachment clause into the Constitution.

Trump’s efforts to block the House inquiry further strengthens the case against the president.

The second article of impeachment accuses Trump of an “unprecedented” defiance of subpoenas. Acting at the behest of the president, nine administration officials, including White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and four federal agencies refused to cooperate with the investigation. This sort of stonewalling, and defiance of the oversight role of Congress, cannot be tolerated — not by Trump, nor by any future president.

In July, during Robert Mueller’s probe, Trump argued that the Constitution gives him “the right to do what I want.”

Impeaching Trump will demonstrate to the president and the American people that no one is above the rule of law.