Impeachment Battle to Turn for First Time on a President's Ties to a Foreign Country.
Last edited Sun Sep 29, 2019, 01:56 PM - Edit history (1)
'The emerging battle over the future of the presidency will explore, as never before, the scope and limits of a commander in chiefs interactions with other countries.
Alexander Hamilton, as usual, got right to the heart of the matter. When the framers were designing the Constitution and its power of impeachment, one of the high crimes they had in mind was giving into what Hamilton called the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils.
For the authors of the countrys charter, there were few bigger threats than a president corruptly tied to forces from overseas. And so as the House opened an impeachment inquiry into President Trumps interactions with Ukraine this past week, the debate quickly focused on one of the oldest issues in Americas democratic experiment.
The emerging battle over the future of Mr. Trumps presidency will explore as never before the scope and limits of a commander in chiefs interactions with other countries. His adversaries echo the fears of the founders in accusing Mr. Trump of committing high crimes by pressuring Ukraine to dig up dirt on Democratic opponents while holding up American aid. Mr. Trump contends that impeaching him would infringe on the ability of future presidents to conduct foreign policy.
Unlike the impeachment battles involving Andrew Johnson, Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton, the debate over Mr. Trump turns on whether a president can solicit or accept help from abroad to advance his political fortunes and where lies the line between the national interest and personal interests. . .
There was a concern, even a paranoia, about foreign intervention, about people who dont have the interests of a new country being taken advantage of by an old power, said Corey Brettschneider, a political-science professor and constitutional scholar at Brown University and author of The Oath and the Office.
The framers expressed this explicitly by inserting what is now called the emoluments clause in the Constitution, barring international payments or gifts to a president or other federal elected official: No person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.
Once a forgotten element of the Constitution, it has attained new popular recognition in the Trump era as multiple critics of the president wage legal battles arguing that he has violated the emoluments clause through hotels and resorts of his that are patronized by Middle East sheikhs and other foreign potentates.
Indeed, Mr. Trumps entire presidency has been shadowed by questions of foreign ties.'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/28/us/politics/impeachment-foreign-influence.html?