Monday, May 13, 2013

Richard Nixon's second impeachment article


Articles of Impeachment were adopted by House Judiciary Committee on July 27, 1974, almost forty years ago.

President Nixon resigned about a week later, and Vice-President Gerald Ford became the new President.



The following text was copied from the website Watergate.info.

The link in the last paragraph is on the original web page.


Using the powers of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in disregard of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has repeatedly engaged in conduct violating the constitutional rights of citizens, impairing the due and proper administration of justice and the conduct of lawful inquiries, or contravening the laws governing agencies of the executive branch and the purposed of these agencies.

This conduct has included one or more of the following:
  1. He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavored to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposed not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.

  2. He misused the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, and other executive personnel, in violation or disregard of the constitutional rights of citizens, by directing or authorizing such agencies or personnel to conduct or continue electronic surveillance or other investigations for purposes unrelated to national security, the enforcement of laws, or any other lawful function of his office; he did direct, authorize, or permit the use of information obtained thereby for purposes unrelated to national security, the enforcement of laws, or any other lawful function of his office; and he did direct the concealment of certain records made by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of electronic surveillance.

  3. He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, in violation or disregard of the constitutional rights of citizens, authorized and permitted to be maintained a secret investigative unit within the office of the President, financed in part with money derived from campaign contributions, which unlawfully utilized the resources of the Central Intelligence Agency, engaged in covert and unlawful activities, and attempted to prejudice the constitutional right of an accused to a fair trial.

  4. He has failed to take care that the laws were faithfully executed by failing to act when he knew or had reason to know that his close subordinates endeavoured to impede and frustrate lawful inquiries by duly constituted executive, judicial and legislative entities concerning the unlawful entry into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, and the cover-up thereof, and concerning other unlawful activities including those relating to the confirmation of Richard Kleindienst as Attorney General of the United States, the electronic surveillance of private citizens, the break-in into the offices of Dr. Lewis Fielding, and the campaign financing practices of the Committee to Re-elect the President.

  5. In disregard of the rule of law, he knowingly misused the executive power by interfering with agencies of the executive branch, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Criminal Division, and the Office of Watergate Special Prosecution Force, of the Department of Justice, and the Central Intelligence Agency, in violation of his duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

In all of this, Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore Richard M. Nixon, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

Adopted 28-10 by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives.


In other words, President Nixon abused the power that was given to him as the President by the U.S. Constitution.



The rest of this page was added on October 29, 2018.

President Obama also abused the power that was given to him by the Constitution.

These are the first five paragraphs of an October 26, 2017 Reuters story.
(Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has reached a settlement with dozens of conservative groups that claimed the Internal Revenue Service unfairly scrutinized them based on their political leanings when they sought a tax-exempt status, court documents showed.

In a pair of lawsuits filed in federal court in 2013, the conservative groups accused the IRS of targeting organizations with such words as “Tea Party” or “patriots” when they applied to the agency for tax-exempt status starting in 2010.

The sides asked the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday to issue a declarative judgment in one of the cases involving 41 plaintiffs that would say the IRS was wrong to apply the United States tax laws based on an entity’s name, position or association with a particular political movement.

“We hope that today’s settlement makes clear that this abuse of power will not be tolerated,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement on Thursday.

The IRS admitted it was wrong when it based screenings of the groups’ applications on their names or policy positions, subjected the groups to heightened scrutiny and delays and demanded unnecessary information from the groups, the agreement in the Washington case said.
This is a similar story, published October 27, 2017 by National Public Radio.

In 1974, and in accordance with the procedure that is in the U.S. Constitution, the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve three Articles of Impeachment for President Richard Nixon.  He resigned before the full House of Representatives could vote whether to impeach him on the three impeachment articles that the Judiciary Committee had decided to approve for him.

This is a copy-and-paste of the first paragraph of this Article of Impeachment, written by the House Judiciary Committee in 1974 and approved by them.
He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavored to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposed not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.
This is part of the previous paragraph.

"... and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner."

B. Hussein Obama should have been impeached for doing exactly what Richard Nixon did.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Summary of the Sample Articles of Impeachment


I wrote an essay in July 2012.  It is called Sample Articles of Impeachment.  That is a clickable link to it.  That essay was published with only a few impeachable offenses listed on the page, but I added more later.

It explains the impeachment process, along with the history of the three presidents who faced this process.

It also states a sample Impeachment Resolution, one step in the process.

Up until late March 2014, "Sample Articles of Impeachment" was the most well-read essay on any of my five blogs, but "Trojan horse legislation", published on March 20th, became the new winner among my readers about a week after it was published.

As of August 17, 2015 "Sample Articles of Impeachment" has been read 1,811 times.

That blog page has a long list of impeachable offenses committed by President Obama.  I didn't want to make the page too long, so I didn't include the negligent homicide of the U.S. Ambassador at Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012.  That impeachable offense could be added later as a separate page on that blog.

Article Name
Counts
Article 1 - Treason
7
1a. An Executive Order that assumes some of the power that has been given to Congress exclusively

1b. "Fast and Furious", also known as sending weapons to Mexican drug gangs

1c. He disclosed classified material.

1d. Economic terrorism.  See also Article 5.

1e. He weakened our missile defenses.

1f. He allowed a drone military aircraft to land safely in Iran.

1g. He ordered the military to follow the commands of the United Nations.

Note: "Sample Articles of Impeachment" names a court decision that states that a judge who assumes power that belongs to somebody else (like the U.S. Congress) is committing treason.


Article 2 - Failure to Protect National Security
1
President Obama ordered the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to deport some people who were eligible for deportation under U.S. Law.  Some of them could be hidden terrorists, as proven by the recent attack in Boston.

See also Article 1e.


Article 3 - Failure to Guarantee First Amendment Religious Liberty
5
One of these five counts mentions lawsuits filed by twelve Catholic Archdioceses against Obamacare.  Each Archdiocese is named and linked.


Article 4 - Establishment of a Religion (Islam)
1
This is expressly forbidden by the U.S. Constitution.


Article 5 - Deliberate Economic Sabotage
1
He has flooded our country with illegal aliens and he has encouraged them to collect welfare.  This reduces the ability of schools to educate American children, it reduces the ability of American employers to give jobs to Americans, and it reduces the ability of American hospitals to care for Americans.  Other U.S. businesses are hurt by illegal immigration, which has dramatically increased since Barak Obama took office.


Article 6 - Actions taken without Constitutional Authority
29
6a. Twenty-eight Presidential Appointments were made without the necessary Senate confirmation.  One of them was Van Jones, who proudly says that he is a communist.
Note: Every one of these people are named, and each one has a link to an appointment announcement.  Glenn Beck did most of the research.
6b. The use of military forces to fight the government of Libya without a Congressional Declaration of War.  These actions were unauthorized by the War Powers Act, which is one of the laws he swore to uphold.


Article 7 - Larceny and Fraud
5


Article 8 - Violation of a Court Order
1
The Federal Communications Commission issued some regulations that were unanimously overturned by the District of Columbia Appeals Court, yet the FCC issued new regulations that were still in violation of the Order.


Article 9 - Contempt of the United States Congress
2
They have some exclusive powers under the U.S. Constitution, but Barak Obama has assumed some of those powers for himself.


Article 10 - Contempt of the United States Supreme Court
2
A Federal court determined that he was in Contempt of Court.


Misdemeanors, as a minor reason to impeach the President.
2
He imposed regulations on a union election.  They were later overturned by a Federal court.

He is responsible for the actions of his Labor Relations Board.


Total number of reasons to impeach the President (mentioned in "Sample Articles of Impeachment")
36

Note: This essay does not include any of the impeachable offenses that Barak Obama committed during the Benghazi murders.

That one incident could mean extra counts of treason, failure to protect the security of the nation, actions taken without the authority of the U.S. Constitution, and perhaps even negligent homicide.

The Watergate-style coverup of Presidential crimes continues today, which means his crimes continue, because the Obstruction of Justice is a crime, too.

President Nixon found out that no man is above the law.

President Obama needs to find that out himself.

Impeach him.