MINNEAPOLIS – Law professor Richard Painter, who served as the White House Chief Ethics Counsel under former President George W. Bush, expressed support today for congressional investigations into whether the abuse of power in connection with the recent indictment of ex-FBI Director James Comey warrants articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump and/or Attorney General Pam Bondi.

On a recorded Zoom discussion with constitutional attorney John Bonifaz, President and Co-Founder of Free Speech For People, Painter likened Trump’s targeted indictment of a political adversary to that of authoritarians around the world. 

“Selective prosecutions are a hallmark of dictatorships. This is what happens in Putin’s Russia,” he said. “The Justice Department is not there to prosecute the enemies of the President of the United States. The Justice Department is there to evenhandedly enforce the law.” 

See their full discussion on Free Speech For People’s YouTube channel.

Painter outlined further abuses of power that warrant congressional investigations, including Trump’s deployment of the military in US cities and his frequent, brazen violations of the Constitution’s foreign & domestic emoluments clauses.

Impeachment, Painter explained, is the constitutional remedy the Framers provided to address an executive guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors; Congress has a duty to investigate whether Trump’s lawless conduct surpasses the threshold that would warrant this measure. “Impeachment is a power given by the Framers to the House and the Senate because of the fear of abuse of executive power,” he explained. “If you allow an abuse of power in one instance, and it goes unchecked, then later on you’ll have even greater abuses, until you don’t have a democracy anymore.” 

Painter’s call for congressional hearings comes on the coattails of a major announcement by the national, non-partisan Impeach Trump Again campaign that its petition demanding Congress impeach, convict, and remove Donald Trump from office has eclipsed one million signatories from across the country. The campaign, spearheaded by constitutional lawyers at Free Speech For People, has outlined twenty-five distinct grounds for Trump’s impeachment. 

Among the most urgent threats documented by the Impeach Trump Again campaign:

• Trump has used military force to occupy two American cities, and he is threatening “WAR” against another. Our troops—sworn to protect our country—are, under Trump’s authority, threatening those they are sworn to protect. 
• Trump has hollowed out once-respected, once-nonpartisan federal agencies, including the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and turned them into tools of oppression and of his own agenda. In recent days, he has forced through a baseless indictment of former FBI director James B. Comey, whom Trump has targeted for retribution because Comey refused to pledge loyalty to Trump in 2017 and because the FBI initiated an investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. To obtain this indictment, Trump fired a federal prosecutor who refused to prosecute Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James without basis, appointed a member of his personal legal team (who has no experience as a prosecutor) to the role, and publicly ordered his attorney general to prosecute James, Comey, and Senator Adam Schiff.
• Trump has waged continuous attacks on the First Amendment, including his recent weaponization of the FCC to censor Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show by leveraging the threat of federal action against ABC affiliates that aired Kimmel’s program.
• Trump, with his Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has carried out a broad scheme to undermine public health and safety, dismantle America’s public health infrastructure, and decimate public health protections, expertise, research, and safeguards—and millions of lives, particularly those of our children, are at risk.
• Across multiple fronts, he is censoring and distorting facts, crippling our government’s data collection initiatives, and depriving the public of accurate information about Trump, his presidency, science, and our own history.
• Trump continues to attempt to smuggle refugees—most recently hundreds of refugee children—out of the country behind the backs of their attorneys and our courts.
• Trump also continues to embolden and empower ICE to violate the rights of American residents and citizens, disrupt our communities, and silence his political opponents.

“This is an existential moment for our nation and our democracy. We either have a Constitution, or we don’t,” said John Bonifaz, President and Co-Founder of Free Speech For People. “Donald Trump has already engaged in multiple abuses of power prior to his targeted, baseless indictment of former FBI Director James Comey. We demand that our elected officials in Congress carry out the mandate of their oath to protect the Constitution at this critical time by standing up and demanding impeachment proceedings against this lawless president.”