A Growing List of Impeachable Offenses

A protester with a sign saying "Impeach" at an anti-Trump demonstration in New York City on January 11. Michael Brochstein/Sipa via AP Images

On July 27, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon. One accused him of obstructing justice and mounting a cover-up to impede the investigation of the Watergate break-in. Another charged him with defying congressional subpoenas requesting documents for the Watergate investigation. A third alleged he had abused his executive power by interfering with and misusing the FBI, the Justice Department, and other federal agencies. All three articles were approved on bipartisan votes. The article on abuse of power received the most votes.

When it comes to using government agencies for corrupt purposes, Donald Trump outdoes Nixon. He has turned the Justice Department and the FBI into his personal revenge police. It’s tough to keep track of the many ways Trump has sicced the bureau and the DOJ on his foes and critics. The targets include former FBI Director Jim Comey; Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell; Fed governor Lisa Cook; Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.); New York Attorney General Letitia James; Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Calif.); Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.); Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.); Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Penn.); Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Penn.); Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.); Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat; Christopher Krebs, the former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; and John Bolton, who was national security adviser during Trump’s first term.

Using a grand jury in Florida—under the supervision of US District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, a total Trump lackey—a Trump-appointed US attorney is trying to mount a criminal conspiracy case against former CIA director John Brennan that could rope in other past Obama and Biden officials, as well as former special counsel Jack Smith. The goal reportedly is to prove there was a never-ending Deep State conspiracy waged by government officials to destroy Trump, stretching from the Russia investigation to Smith’s investigations of Trump’s alleged theft of White House documents and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Brennan’s lawyer has accused the Justice Department of engaging in “irregular activity” to kickstart this criminal inquiry.

Trump and his aides have identified other targets for possible federal prosecution, including Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.); Andrew Weissmann, who was a prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller; and Lisa Monaco, who was deputy attorney general in the Biden administration. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) is being investigated by the Defense Department.

This is some rundown. Nixon could not have dreamed of such a revenge-fest. All these cases are bullshit—except perhaps for Bolton, who is accused of mishandling classified information. Trump has turned the Justice Department and the FBI into his private retribution squads, ordering investigations of his foes in a manner unprecedented in American history. As those Watergate-era legislators noted, this is impeachable conduct.

Trump is running the government like a mafioso, utilizing its power to intimidate and, if possible, take out his perceived enemies. There’s been some resistance with US attorneys refusing to handle some of these cases. But those folks have been shoved aside, as Attorney General Pam Bondi has been delighted to serve as both Trump’s consigliere and lawfare hitman. (Hit-woman?)

Trump’s use of the Justice Department and FBI might even be criminal. It’s a federal felony to “defraud the United States or any agency thereof.” (Look up 18 U.S.C. § 371.) Usually fraud involves conning someone out of money or property. But the Justice Department website helpfully informs us that fraud extends beyond pocketing ill-gotten gains. It cites Hammerschmidt v. United States, a 1924 Supreme Court case in which Chief Justice William Taft defined “defraud” this way:

To conspire to defraud the United States means primarily to cheat the Government out of property or money, but it also means to interfere with or obstruct one of its lawful governmental functions by deceit, craft or trickery, or at least by means that are dishonest. It is not necessary that the Government shall be subjected to property or pecuniary loss by the fraud, but only that its legitimate official action and purpose shall be defeated by misrepresentation, chicane or the overreaching of those charged with carrying out the governmental intention.

Interfere with…one of [government’s] lawful governmental functions. I’m no constitutional (or criminal) lawyer, but ordering up phony or baseless criminal investigations might fit that description.

Of course, Trump is beyond federal prosecution. Justice Department policy is that a sitting president cannot be federally indicted. And two years ago, Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative comrades granted Trump (and future presidents) broad immunity for official actions. Moreover, let’s be real: How could a corrupt Justice Department investigate the guy who’s corrupting it?

But Trump’s perversion of the Justice Department ought to be near the top of a (metaphorical) bill of indictment—and a possible line of inquiry for any future impeachment proceedings.

That is, admittedly, a crowded category. Trump is crime-ing 24/7—a-griftin’ and a-graftin’. One example: He and his crew are clearly selling pardons—which might also be considered a defrauding of the government. One of the most recent outrageous pardons went to Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan-Italian banker, facing felony charges for allegedly bribing the governor of Puerto Rico. His daughter donated $3.5 million to MAGA Inc., a Trump super-PAC, and—presto!—Trump hands daddy a get-out-of-jail-free card.

On his last day in office, President Bill Clinton pardoned fugitive financier Marc Rich, a sleazebag who owed $48 million in taxes. Rich’s ex-wife had made hefty donations to the Clinton library and the Democratic National Committee. The Rich pardon triggered outrage; even some of the Clintons’ most prominent supporters denounced it. A federal investigation was launched, but it yielded no charges. Trump is doing the equivalent of this over and over—and spurring much less of an uproar.

And he has violated international and US law with his attacks on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and his assault on Venezuela. He and his Pentagon even stand accused of a war crime called “perfidy”—using civilian-looking aircraft as bombers.

You can’t swing a dead cat in the White House without hitting an illegal action. Take the Mad King’s absurd but dangerous threat to impose tariffs on European countries if Denmark doesn’t hand him Greenland. The Constitution clearly states that the power to impose tariffs resides with Congress, not the president. Trump claims the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 allows him in emergency situations to slap other nations with tariffs. But that legislation doesn’t mention tariffs, and no president before has sought to use it to justify tariffs. Besides, what was the emergency that demanded his earlier tariffs or these new ones?

Trump’s authority to apply tariffs is now before the Supreme Court, and a decision could come any day—maybe even before you read this. But one thing seems rather obvious: The acquisition of Greenland is not an emergency. When Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked about this by Kristen Welker on Meet the Press on Sunday, he said, “the national emergency is avoiding a national emergency.” This was ridiculous. A national emergency usually means an imminent threat or danger. Under Bessent’s definition, anything can be a national emergency. Words have no meaning for the Trump crew. Let me rephrase that: Laws and the Constitution have no meaning for them.

Trump is a crime boss, and this is a lawless regime. With his purposefully cruel deportation crusade, he has turned ICE into a violent secret police. In recent weeks, he has been trying to rally his base for the midterms, declaring that he expects to be impeached if the Democrats win control of the House. Let’s hope someone is keeping a list. It gets longer every day.

Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland.corn@gmail.com.

Last August, I wrote that Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) had an illustrious career as a physician before entering politics, including working in a medical facility for the uninsured and creating a public-private partnership to vaccinate 36,000 children in the Baton Rouge area against hepatitis B and the flu, at no cost to their families. But, alas, he wiped out his legacy as a public-interest-minded doctor when he voted to confirm the appointment of anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services. As chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Cassidy had a big say in RFK Jr.’s confirmation. Had he voted thumbs down, it was likely this addled conspiracy theorist would have been kept out of Trump’s Cabinet—and the damage Kennedy has wreaked would have been avoided.

At the time of the vote, Cassidy, who seemed genuinely worried about Kennedy’s anti-vax extremism, said he had received assurances from RFK Jr. that assuaged his concerns. Yet many folks assumed Cassidy, who was heading toward a re-election bid, feared the wrath of Trump and his MAGA base if he nixed this appointment.

Well, nothing has worked out for Cassidy. After he hit HHS, Kennedy took actions that he had vowed he wouldn’t in pursuit of his anti-vaccine agenda. So Cassidy failed to prevent this assault on public health. And days ago, Trump endorsed a potential Republican primary challenger to Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment.

Cassidy was played for a chump. His vote for RFK Jr. paved the way to policies Cassidy opposes and it did not help him politically. He knew it was wrong to place Kennedy in charge of the nation’s public health system. But he did so—and received nothing in return. Now we are all paying the price for his political cowardice. As I wrote in the summer, “The Hippocratic Oath, which is traditionally recited by new physicians, states a doctor should ‘abstain from doing harm.’ Cassidy has broken that vow.” And his betrayal did not even protect him from Trump’s vengeful wrath.

Bugonia. Teddy Gantz has been listening to too many podcasts about extraterrestrial aliens, and he has become obsessed with a conspiracy theory that holds that aliens called Andromedans who look like humans have taken control of the world. He wants to save humankind by exposing this plot and negotiating with the aliens their retreat from Earth. Teddy also doesn’t have much else going on in his life. He works at a warehouse distribution center and keeps bees at his family home in an isolated rural stretch. Drawn deeper into this dark alternative reality, he and Don, his autistic cousin, kidnap Michelle Fuller, the type-A CEO of a biomedical firm whom Teddy suspects is an Andromedan. They shave off her hair (which apparently she uses to communicate with her fellow aliens), smother her with antihistamine cream (which will deaden her heightened neural powers), and imprison her in their basement.

This is an intriguing set-up. Teddy, whip-smart but lost in his conspiracism, faces off against Fuller. He tries to get her to confess; she attempts to figure out how best to handle him to save her life. Should she deny his narrative or play along as she seeks an escape? This could be a wonderful theater piece, and Jesse Plemons as Teddy and Emma Stone (sans hair) as Michelle, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, deliver wonderful performances in this pas de deux. With so much irrational conspiracy-mongering fueling American politics these days, there’s a biting relevancy to their face-off. Teddy is one of those people who have done their own research, as they say. But look where’s it gotten him.

Bugonia, Wikipedia tells me, was “a folk practice in the ancient Mediterranean region based on the belief that bees were spontaneously generated from a cow’s carcass.” (You learn something new every day.) The current plight of bees is a key data point for the film. I can’t say much more about what happens between Teddy and Michelle without being a spoiler. But I was disappointed in how the danger-infused dance between them played out. There’s a twist that’s somewhat predictable, and it leads to a dismaying and bleak finale. Lanthimos clearly desired to end with a Big Message About Humanity and the Whole World, when perhaps it would have been best to have worked things out in Teddy’s basement.

The Analogues. The Beatles’ last concert was at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on August 29, 1966. (They did mount a performance on a London rooftop on January 30, 1969, that was shut down by British bobbies.) The band came to an end in September 1969. Thus, the Fab Four never performed live many of their most impressive and influential songs—say, any track from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The White Album, and Abbey Road. Much of their music became just too tough to replicate outside the studio, though on his solo tours Paul McCartney has done a good job of sharing these numbers. But, as I’ve recently discovered, a bunch of obsessive Dutch Beatles fans did what John, Paul, George, and Ringo never did: bring some of the best Beatles songs to life on the concert stage.

In 2014, a group of musicians in Holland formed a Beatles tribute band called The Analogues. But this was no ordinary tribute band. Using analogue equipment and period-accurate instruments, they meticulously recreated in live performances—note for note—latter-day Beatles compositions and whole albums. The members studied the tunes, sought out the guitars, amps, other instruments, and gear that matched what the Beatles had used, and figured out how to play live the songs that took the Beatles and producer George Martin weeks to record. This included recruiting string and horn sections. The Analogues wowed audiences with their virtuosity and extreme devotion to detail.

This act may sound a bit gimmicky—as if this band was merely a giant jukebox. After all, if you’re not looking for artistic interpretation (like Joe Cocker doing “With a Little Help From My Friends”) and you want to hear the entirety of Sgt. Pepper’s, you can just play a record, pop in a CD, or stream. Yet there is something thrilling to see these songs fully realized IRL by unfamous musicians. It’s akin to watching an orchestra playing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

The Analogues seem to have disbanded in 2024, though last year its members reunited to benefit War Child, a nonprofit, and cycled from the Netherlands to Ukraine for the stops on the tour. If they ever get on an airplane to perform near me, I’ll be there.