Two constitutional law experts explained that there are two "high crimes and misdemeanors" Donald Trump may be guilty of that could lead to impeachment — and why those complicated potential offenses should be investigated.
Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe and practicing constitutional law attorney Joshua Matz wrote in a Saturday Daily Beast column that since the release of their book "To End A Presidency: The Power of Impeachment" in May 2018, they've identified two more alleged crimes that "warrant investigation."
First: his "corrupt failure to defend the United States—and its electoral system—against domestic operations launched by a hostile foreign power."
By ignoring intelligence assessments about Russia's electoral interference, Trump is, Lawfare's Bob Bauer wrote, "misleading the American people about the very fact of Russia’s actions."
Trump's inaction itself — known as "nonfeasance" or "a failure to act when action is required" — could be impeachable itself, Tribe and Matz wrote. But it also appears that he deliberately chose not to act, they added.
"In our view, it would be appropriate to impeach a president who ignores a nation’s attacks on our democracy because he hopes that nation will help him (or his political party) at the polls or in future business endeavors," the authors noted. "Trump’s motives for adopting this policy of apparent inaction are therefore worthy of investigation."
The second potentially impeachable crime is less complex, Tribe and Matz wrote: that he allegedly broke the law during the 2016 election with his "hush money" payments to two women in efforts to protect his campaign, as outlined by his former attorney Michael Cohen.
"Viewing Trump’s conduct as a whole, we see a sustained disregard for the law," they wrote, "and a willingness to use his wealth in illegal ways while buying silence from those who might harm his political fortunes with the truth."
Read the entire column via the Daily Beast.