When the history books are written years from now, February 19, 2019 will be seen as the day that the presidency of Donald Trump began to disintegrate before his eyes.
With multiple investigations closing in on Trump — Robert Mueller, the Southern District of New York, various House committees — a blockbuster report from the New York Times suggests that Trump has indeed obstructed justice and been caught red-handed:
“As federal prosecutors in Manhattan gathered evidence late last year about President Trump’s role in silencing women with hush payments during the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump called Matthew G. Whitaker, his newly installed attorney general, with a question. He asked whether Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York and a Trump ally, could be put in charge of the widening investigation, according to several American officials with direct knowledge of the call.”
“The president soon soured on Mr. Whitaker, as he often does with his aides, and complained about his inability to pull levers at the Justice Department that could make the president’s many legal problems go away.”
Asking the chief law enforcement officer of the United States to quash an ongoing investigation is textbook obstruction of justice. If you doubt that, consider what Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano said on air Tuesday afternoon:
“That is an effort to use the levers of power of the government for a corrupt purpose, to deflect an investigation into himself or his allies.”
Former Whitewater senior counsel Paul Rosenzweig echoed Napolitano’s remarks during an appearance on CNN:
“This sort of abuse of power, this sort of violation of the independence of the Department of justice in a case involving his very own conduct is precisely the sort of authoritarian activity that the impeachment process was intended to stand as a bulwark against. This is potentially impeachable.”
With Democrats now in control of the House, it’s safe to predict that impeachment hearings may begin any day now. And they should. With each day, we learn of new crimes committed by this lawless traitor who currently serves as president.
Today is the beginning of the end of Donald Trump.