Committee members will hold a public hearing on Sen. Jo Comerford’s resolution to support an impeachment inquiry of President Trump, making it the first state to officially call for impeachment proceedings.

BOSTON, MA  — The Massachusetts Joint Committee on Veterans and Foreign Affairs will consider a resolution supporting impeachment proceedings against President Donald J. Trump. The public hearing will begin at 11:00 am on Tuesday, September 24th in the State House’s Gardner Auditorium.

The resolution, introduced in the State Senate by Sen. Jo Comerford in January, cites ten legal grounds for impeachment proceedings against Trump, including unconstitutional imprisonment of children and their families at the southern border, obstruction of justice in the Russia investigation, and violations of the emoluments clauses of the Constitution.

“People from all over the Commonwealth and the country have stood up to demand Congress do their job and hold President Trump accountable for his abuse of power and the public trust,” says Senator Comerford.  “At this critical moment in history, we must defend our Constitution and our democracy, and we must lift up that bedrock principle that no one is above the law, not even the President of the United States.”

A number of Massachusetts cities and towns, including Cambridge, Newton, and Amherst, have passed local resolutions calling for impeachment proceedings, but, with the passage of this state legislative resolution, Massachusetts would be the first state to formally call on Members of Congress to perform their Constitutional duty. 

Free Speech For People, a national non-profit public interest organization founded in 2010 and dedicated to defending our Constitution and our democracy, helped to draft the resolution.

“Public support for impeachment has grown tremendously since Senator Comerford introduced her resolution in January,” says Free Speech For People President John Bonifaz. “On the federal level, more than 135 Members of Congress are now in favor of an impeachment inquiry, including seven out of nine members of the House delegation from Massachusetts. We urge the Massachusetts Legislature to pass this resolution and help lead the way for holding President Trump accountable, through the impeachment process, for his abuses of power and abuses of the public trust.”

In 2017, Free Speech For People co-launched a campaign calling for impeachment proceedings with an initial focus on President Trump’s violations of the emoluments clauses based on his refusal to divest fully from his business interests prior to taking the oath of office.  The campaign has since expanded to include eleven legal grounds for impeachment proceedings, and more than 1.4 million Americans have signed on to support their call.

The public hearing of the Joint Committee on Veterans and Federal Affairs will begin at 11:00 am ET on Tuesday, September 24th in the State House’s Gardner Auditorium.