Trump dares Congress to act with staggering amount of impeachable crimes: expert

Ignoring due process. Lying to the American people. Violating the Emoluments Clause with blatant corruption.

These are just a few of the impeachable offenses that legal experts say President Donald Trump has committed during his first five months in office.

The total number of impeachable offenses Trump has committed ranges between three and eight, according to experts who spoke with New York Times columnist Thomas Edsall. While the chances of Trump being impeached with the current makeup of Congress appear slim, legal experts say Trump is effectively daring it to initiate proceedings against him.

Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina, told Edsall that Trump "has committed more impeachable offenses in the first few months of his second term than all previous presidents combined."

Some of the offenses Gerhardt points to include eroding public health protections, abusing the president's pardon power to protect allies, and infringing on First Amendment free speech protections.

Five other legal experts shared actions Trump has taken that could constitute grounds for impeachment.

For instance, U.C. Berkeley law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky said the administration's efforts to send people maximum-security prison in El Salvador and to South Sudan without due process is a "very serious abuse of power."

University of Virginia law professor Amanda Frost added that Trump's pardon of over 1,500 people who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, is a "moral outrage that threatens our democracy."

"That action alone would justify impeachment at many other times in history," Frost told Edsall.

The focus on impeachable actions comes as some White House staffers say Trump is unfit to be president.