A Republican former congressman penned an op-ed Thursday that slammed his party-mates for considering the concept that Donald Trump committed treason a "liberal fantasy."
"Under the Constitution an individual commits treason if the nation is at war and the person provides aid and comfort to the enemy," former Rep. Tom Coleman (R-MO) wrote in an editorial for The Daily Beast. "This is an impeachable offense, committed by word or deed. It's one that individuals need to start grappling with seriously because it is not some far-fetched liberal fantasy to conclude that Donald Trump may have committed treason."
"In fact," he continued, "the case is fairly simple to make."
Laying out claims agreed upon by the intelligence community and special counsel Robert Mueller, Coleman argued that Russia's cyber-attacks during the 2016 presidential election "meet the international criteria of an armed attack and an act of war against the United States."
As such, the increasingly suspicious interactions between Trump campaign officials and Kremlin-linked individuals deserve close scrutiny, the former Missouri congressman wrote.
"Did Trump assist Russia in its conduct of cyber war against the United States?" Coleman wrote. "Did the cumulative effect of the Trump campaign and Trump’s personal actions result in aiding and abetting a hostile nation? Did Trump’s actions rise to the level of giving aid and comfort to an enemy?"
"These are extremely important issues and I suspect both Congress and the Special Counsel's office will eventually be alarmed by the answers they find," he concluded.
