Impeach Page 15

  This isn’t about impeaching a president. This is about coming together around our shared belief that no one is above the law—and making sure we are never vulnerable to this kind of division again. This is about not only holding out America’s motto as a goal to which we aspire but working every day to make it a reality.

  E pluribus unum.

  Out of many, one.

  Acknowledgments

  When people ask us how two people wrote a book in a handful of weeks, our answer is we didn’t. Sure, two names—Neal and Sam—might be on the cover, but this book wouldn’t have come together without countless others dropping everything to make this possible.

  That starts with Howard Yoon, who believed in us, and believed in this project, before anyone else. Without him, this book wouldn’t exist.

  That’s also true of Elena Vázquez and Jake Leffew, who woke up early in the morning and stayed up late at night to add serious heft to a book researched in a matter of weeks. The speed, the comprehensiveness, the diligence of their work was invaluable. And Julie Tate built on their contributions to ensure that we didn’t publish any fake news.

  Neal would also like to thank his management team at Friends at Work, and especially the unparalleled Ty Stiklorius, Lindsay Scola, and Andrea Sumpter.

  Perhaps more than anyone else, we also owe our gratitude to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt—Alexander, Bruce, Olivia, Megan, Lori, and everyone else on the team, who edited, designed, and printed this book in record speed. Most publishers would have said we were crazy. (Some, of course, actually did.) But Houghton Mifflin Harcourt took a chance on this crazy project and then somehow made it happen.

  We also couldn’t conclude this acknowledgments section without thanking everyone who read this manuscript on such short notice, as well as our families, who are our whole world.

  Appendix

  This appendix includes several of the documents that are core to the case against President Trump. They include the whistleblower complaint, the White House summary of Trump’s call with President Zelensky of Ukraine, the texts Ambassador Volker divulged, and the letter President Trump’s lawyer sent to Congress, claiming unprecedented executive power.

  For digital access to these documents, you can head over to www.nealkatyal.com. And as more evidence is published, we will be sure to include it there as well.

  The Whistleblower Complaint

  The July 25 Call Summary

  The Text Messages

  The White House Letter

  Notes

  Introduction

  Five minutes and 21 seconds: James M. Naughton. “A Historic Charge.” New York Times, July 28, 1974. https://www.nytimes.com/1974/07/28/archives/a-historic-charge-two-more-articles.html/.

  The vote came more than two years: Jilian Fama, and Meghan Kiesel. “Watergate Burglars: Where Are They Now?” ABC News, June 17, 2012. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/watergate-burglars-now/story?id=16567157.

  In a Washington Post article: Richard Lyons, and William Chapman. “Judiciary Committee Approves Article to Impeach President Nixon.” Washington Post, July 28, 1974. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/072874-1.htm.

  “I don’t want to talk to anybody”: Ibid.

  Representative Walter Flowers: Ibid.

  Only two presidents in our nation’s history: Tara Law. “What to Know About the U.S. Presidents Who’ve Been Impeached.” Time, September 29, 2019. https://time.com/5552679/impeached-presidents/.

  Only 19 officials: United States House of Representatives. “List of Individuals Impeached by the House of Representatives,” n.d. https://history.house.gov/Institution/Impeachment/Impeachment-List/.

  As James Madison wrote: James Madison. Federalist No. 51, February 8, 1788.

  As Alexander Hamilton wrote: Alexander Hamilton. Federalist No. 65, March 7, 1788.

  In one of the greatest speeches: George Washington. “Farewell Address.” September 19, 1796.

  Similarly, John Adams: John Adams. “Letter to Thomas Jefferson,” December 7, 1787. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-0281.

  And when James Madison: Michael Sozan. “The Founders Would Have Impeached Trump for His Ukraine-Related Misconduct,” September 26, 2019. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/news/2019/09/26/475114/founders-impeached-trump-ukraine-related-misconduct/.

  In 2008, a congressmen captured: Ari Melber. “Mike Pence Address to Congress on Impeachment.” Twitter. October 9, 2019. https://twitter.com/TheBeatWithAri/status/1182058746782068737.

  Whereas Mueller’s report: “Read the Transcript of Trump’s Conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky—CNNPolitics,” CNN.com, September 26, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/25/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-transcript-call/index.html/.

  And we have a transcript: Katherine Faulders, and Conor Finnegan, ABC News, “‘Crazy to Withhold Security Assistance’ to Ukraine for Political Campaign: Top US Diplomat,” October 3, 2019. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/top-diplomat-ukraine-crazy-withhold-security-sasistance-political/story?id=66039011.

  Acting White House chief of staff: Aaron Blake, “Analysis | Trump’s Acting Chief of Staff Admits It: There Was a Ukraine Quid pro Quo,” Washington Post, October 17, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/10/17/white-house-chief-staff-mick-mulvaney-admits-it-there-was-ukraine-quid-pro-quo/.

  Moreover, not only do we have transcripts: Donald Trump. “Twitter Post.” Twitter (blog), October 3, 2019. https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1179925259417468928?lang=en..

  And he’s doubling down: Kevin Breuninger, “Trump Says China Should Investigate the Bidens, Doubles down on Ukraine Probe,” CNBC, October 3, 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/03/trump-calls-for-ukraine-china-to-investigate-the-bidens.html/.

  This is the approach: Philip Bump. “If Trump Shot Someone Dead on Fifth Avenue, Many Supporters Would Call His Murder Trial Biased.” Washington Post, March 14, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/14/if-trump-shot-someone-dead-fifth-avenue-many-supporters-would-call-his-murder-trial-biased/.

  As Edmund Randolph said: Erick Trickey, “Inside the Founding Fathers’ Debate over what Constituted an Impeachable Offense,” Smithsonian Magazine, October 2, 2017, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/inside-founding-fathers-debate-over-what-constituted-impeachable-offense-180965083/.

  To crystallize this point: “Great Interviews of the 20th Century: Richard Nixon Interviewed by David Frost,” The Guardian, September 7, 2007, sec. Media, https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2007/sep/07/greatinterviews1.

  1. A Brief History of Impeachment

  After the soaring rhetoric: Thomas Jefferson et al. “The Declaration of Independence,” July 4, 1776. http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/.

  “The executive will be”: “Madison Debates.”

  And, to create what James Madison: Federalist No. 51.

  The Constitutional Convention: Jill Lepore. “How Impeachment Ended Up in the Constitution.” The New Yorker, May 18, 2017. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-impeachment-ended-up-in-the-constitution.

  On that hot summer day: “Madison Debates”; Jill Lepore, “How Impeachment Ended Up in the Constitution.”

  “Shall any man be”: “Madison Debates.”

  The president, Madison warned: Ibid.

  William Richardson Davie: Jon Meacham, Peter Baker, Timothy Naftali, and Jeffrey A. Engel. Impeachment: An American History. Random House, 2018, p. 29.

  The debate went on: Jill Lepore: “How Impeachment Ended Up in the Constitution.”

  But while King had a point: “Madison Debates.”

  as tensions grew between those: Ibid.

  While Franklin understood: Ibid.

  By the end of the day: Jill Lepore, “How Impeachment Ended Up in the Constitution.”

  The king of England: Erick Trickey. “Inside the Founding Fathers’ Debate Over What Constituted an Impeachable Offense.”

  Only if two-thirds: Charlie
Savage. “How the Impeachment Process Works,” New York Times, October 4, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/us/politics/impeachment-trump-explained.html/.

  While Parliament could only impeach: Charles L. Black, and Philip Bobbitt. Impeachment: A Handbook. Yale University Press, 1974. pp. 117–118.

  And unlike in Britain: United States Constitution, Article I, Section 3.

  As the convention wound down: John R. Vile. “The Critical Role of Committees at the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787.” The American Journal of Legal History 28, no. 2 (April 2006): pp. 147–76.

  In early drafts of the Constitution: Trickey, “Inside the Founding Fathers’ Debate over what Constituted an Impeachable Offense.”

  Less than a week later: Ibid.

  The Constitution’s definition of treason: United States Constitution, Article III, Section 3.

  Mason’s suggestion: “Madison Debates.”

  Madison, one of the members: Erick Trickey, “Inside the Founding Fathers’ Debate Over What Constituted an Impeachable Offense.”

  “So vague a term”: “Madison Debates.”

  Mason conceded Madison’s point: Ibid.

  The committee voted 8–3: Ibid.

  This Committee on Style: John R. Vile, “The Critical Role of Committees at the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787.”

  They simply made the phrase: “Madison Debates.”

  According to the Constitution: United States Constitution, Article III, Section 2.

  This is an extreme case: Charles L. Black and Philip Bobbitt, Impeachment: A Handbook, p. 108.

  Or, as they write: Ibid., p. 109.

  After all, the very first federal official: Ezra Klein, “Impeachment Explained, Episode 1,” Vox podcast, October 18, 2019.

  In the important presidential caucus: “IA Code § 192.143,” accessed October 24, 2019, https://law.justia.com/codes/iowa/2011/titlev/subtitle4/chapter192/192-143/.

  We know this interpretation: Charles L. Black and Philip Bobbitt, Impeachment: A Handbook, p. 110.

  The severity of the crime: Jon Meacham et al., Impeachment: An American History, p. 110.

  Violating the Tenure of Office Act: Charles L. Black and Philip Bobbitt, Impeachment: A Handbook.

  The Supreme Court eventually ruled the Tenure Act: Ibid.

  The House voted to impeach: Andrew Glass, “House votes to impeach Andrew Johnson, February 24, 1868,” Politico, February 24, 2015, https://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/this-day-in-politics-115420.

  An abolitionist senator from Kansas: Edmund Ross, Robert L. Jackson. “Impeach Vote Costly for Senator.” Los Angeles Times, December 19, 1998. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-dec-19-mn-55589-story.html/.

  Far from it: Kansas Historical Society. “Edmund G. Ross Collection,” n.d. https://www.kshs.org/p/edmund-g-ross-collection/14112.

  For nearly a century: John F. Kennedy. Profiles in Courage, Harper & Row, 1955.

  In a lonely grave: John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Part 3, Chapter 6: Edmund G. Ross:, https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKPP/028/JFKPP-028-043.

  The story of President Clinton’s impeachment: Laurence Tribe, and Joshua Matz. To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment. Basic Books, 2018.

  There is no denying: Bill Clinton: “I Did Not Have Sexual Relations with That Woman,” accessed October 24, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/bill-clinton-i-did-not-have-sexual-relations-with-that-woman/2018/01/25/4a953c22-0221-11e8-86b9-8908743c79dd_video.html/; “The Impeachment of Bill Clinton,” Bill of Rights Institute (blog), accessed October 24, 2019, https://billofrightsinstitute.org/elessons/the-impeachment-of-bill-clinton/.

  Tribe and Joshua Matz write: Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz, To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment, p. 21.

  As Jeffrey A. Engel writes: Jon Meacham et al., Impeachment: An American History, pp. xiii–xiv.

  This played out most explicitly: Ronald G. Shafer. “‘He Lies like a Dog’: The First Effort to Impeach a President Was Led by His Own Party.” Washington Post, September 23, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/09/23/he-lies-like-dog-first-effort-impeach-president-was-led-by-his-own-party/.

  This worried Whigs in Congress: Ibid.

  In July of 1842: United States House of Representatives. “A Petition for a Pres­idential Impeachment,” n.d. https://history.house.gov/HistoricalHighlight/Detail/15032448949.

  “If the power of impeachment”: Ronald G. Shafer, “‘He Lies like a Dog’: The First Effort to Impeach a President Was Led by His Own Party.”

  Let him serve out: Ibid.

  It was the intention: United States Constitutional Convention. The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. Edited by Max Farrand. Vol. III. Yale University Press, 1911, p. 268.

  This is why: Alexander Hamilton. Federalist No. 65. March 7, 1788.

  The midnight to 7 a.m.: DeNeen L. Brown. “‘The Post’ and the Forgotten Security Guard Who Discovered the Watergate Break-In.” Washington Post, December 22, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/12/22/the-post-and-the-forgotten-security-guard-who-discovered-the-watergate-break-in/.

  But late in the night: The Impeachment of Richard Nixon, Tom van der Voort, “Watergate: The Break-In,” Miller Center, June 6, 2017, https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/educational-resources/watergate/watergate-break.

  “1:47 AM Found tape”: DeNeen L. Brown. “‘The Post’ and the Forgotten Security Guard Who Discovered the Watergate Break-In.” Washington Post, December 22, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/12/22/the-post-and-the-forgotten-security-guard-who-discovered-the-watergate-break-in/.

  But for more than two years: Daniel Bush. “The Complete Watergate Timeline (It Took Longer than You Realize).” PBS, May 30, 2017. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/complete-watergate-timeline-took-longer-realize.

  On August 1: Ibid.

  In April of the next year: Ibid.

  Yet, in November 1973: “Nixon: ‘I Am Not a Crook.’” History.com, November 17, 1973. https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/nixon-i-am-not-a-crook-video.

  Asserting executive privilege: Marisa Iati. “Inside the Supreme Court Ruling That Made Nixon Turn over His Watergate Tapes.” Washington Post, October 3, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/10/03/inside-supreme-court-ruling-that-made-nixon-turn-over-his-watergate-tapes/.

  Recognizing that he had no chance: Richard Nixon. “President Nixon’s Resignation Speech,” August 8, 1974. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/spc/character/links/nixon_speech.html/.

  As President Trump’s phone call: Peter Baker. “‘We Absolutely Could Not Do That’: When Seeking Foreign Help Was Out of the Question.” New York Times, October 6, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/06/us/politics/trump-foreign-influence.html/.

  James A. Baker III: Ibid.

  “most deadly adversaries”: Alexander Hamilton. The Federalist Papers: No. 68, 1788. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed68.asp.

  It led to the natural-born citizen clause: The Constitution of the United States of America, Article II, Section 1.

  It led to the emoluments clause: The Constitution of the United States of America, Article I, Section 9.

  As Edmund Randolph: Jonathan Elliot, The Debates in Several State Conventions of the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 1827, p. 36.

  Within years of the Constitution’s: Jordan Taylor, “Perspective | The Founding Fathers Knew First-Hand That Foreign Interference in U.S. Elections Was Dangerous,” Washington Post, October 7, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/10/07/founders-knew-first-hand-that-foreign-interference-us-elections-was-dangerous/.

  “Throughout the 1790s”: “The Citizen Genêt Affair, 1793–1794,” United States Department of State Office of the Historian, accessed October 24, 2019, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/citizen-genet.

  Genêt’s successors: Taylor, “The Founding Fathers Knew First-Hand That Foreig
n Interference in U.S. Elections Was Dangerous.”

  “One newspaper writer”: Ibid.

  2. The Evidence

  Early in the summer of 2019: “Transcript: ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos’ Exclusive Interview with President Trump,” Good Morning America, June 16, 2019, https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/news/story/transcript-abc-news-george-stephanopoulos-exclusive-interview-president-63749144.

  When President Trump’s comments: John Cassidy, “The Stephanopoulos Interview Is Another Fine Mess for Trump | The New Yorker,” The New Yorker, June 15, 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-stephanopoulos-interview-is-another-fine-mess-for-trump.

  Sean Hannity resorted: Erik Wemple, “Opinion | George Stephanopoulos Is Filleting President Trump, Clip by Clip,” Washington Post, June 14, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/14/george-stephanopoulos-is-filleting-president-trump-clip-by-clip/.

  Representative Tom Cole: Kyle Cheney and Rew Desiderio, “House Republicans Try to Spin Trump’s Foreign Dirt Comment,” Politico, accessed October 15, 2019, https://politi.co/2IfyKel.

  Even Republican senator: “Graham on Foreign Influence on American Elections,” United States Senator Lindsey Graham, June 13, 2019, https://www.lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/6/graham-on-foreign-influence-on-american-elections.