State legislators in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have introduced resolutions calling on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings now against President Trump, citing 10 legal grounds for impeachment.

BOSTON, MA (Wednesday, February 27) – Massachusetts and Pennsylvania legislators have introduced resolutions calling on Congress to start impeachment proceedings now against President Donald Trump.  The resolutions cite ten legal grounds for impeachment proceedings against Trump, including the imprisonment of children in internment camps at the southern border and obstruction of justice by firing and threatening to fire senior Justice Department officials and by taking other actions to interfere with the Russia investigation.

“There are critical moments in history, and this is one of them.  We must defend the Constitution today from a president who acts as if he is above the law,” says Massachusetts State Representative Lindsay Sabadosa, who introduced a resolution today in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. “Massachusetts can lead the nation and call on our representatives in Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump now.”

“People from all over the Commonwealth have stood up to demand Congress do their duty and hold President Trump accountable for his abuse of power and abuse of the public trust,” says State Senator Comerford who sponsored a resolution in the Massachusetts State Senate in January.  “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.  I am so proud to introduce this resolution so that the Commonwealth can speak with one voice to urge our Members of Congress to immediately begin an impeachment investigation of President Trump.”

“Firing former FBI Director James Comey to stop his investigation of President Trump and paying porn stars to hide affairs from the voters before the 2016 election are immediate grounds for impeachment,” said Pennsylvania State Senator Art Haywood (D-Philadelphia/Montgomery) who introduced a resolution in the Pennsylvania State Senate on February 19, 2019.

Free Speech For People, a national non-profit public interest organization founded on the day of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling in 2010, helped to draft all three resolutions.

“President Donald Trump is a direct and serious threat to our Republic,” says John Bonifaz, the Co-Founder and President of Free Speech For People.  “On an almost daily basis, he attacks our Constitution, our democracy, and the rule of law.  His conduct has created a constitutional crisis which we must confront now.  We applaud Representative Sabadosa, Senator Comerford, and Senator Haywood for their leadership in calling on Members of Congress to start impeachment proceedings today against this president.”

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 of the Constitution 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 ten legal grounds for impeachment proceedings, and more than 1.4 million Americans have signed on to support their call.

“President Trump has been on a collision course with the Constitution since the day he took office,” says Ben Clements, the Board Chair of Free Speech For People.   “His impeachable offenses, including criminal schemes to secure his election, unconstitutional profiteering, obstruction of justice, and a sustained effort to undermine freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and civil rights and liberties, threaten our constitutional democracy. We urge the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania Legislatures to send a clear message to Congress: Begin impeachment proceedings now and end this national nightmare.”

“The time for delay is over. The evidence of President Trump’s impeachable offenses is now overwhelming, and Congress needs to start the hearings now,” says Ron Fein, the Legal Director of Free Speech For People.  “We don’t need to wait for Special Counsel Mueller’s final report to see that Trump is openly obstructing the administration of justice, intimidating witnesses, gorging himself on payoffs from corrupt foreign governments, and trying to turn federal law enforcement into a weapon against his political opponents. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania can lead the way in defending the Constitution and our democracy and calling upon Congress to start the process of impeachment hearings.”

Ron Fein, John Bonifaz, and Ben Clements are the co-authors of a new book, The Constitution Demands It: The Case For The Impeachment of Donald Trump, published in August 2018 by Melville House, detailing the legal case for impeachment hearings.  The book presents a legal analysis based on the text, structure, and history of the Constitution and federal law, and legal and political precedent.  The case for an impeachment investigation includes: violating two of the anti-corruption provisions of the US Constitution (the emoluments clauses); obstructing justice; conspiring to solicit and then conceal illegal foreign assistance for his presidential campaign; abusing the pardon power; undermining the freedom of the press; recklessly threatening nuclear war against foreign nations; directing or seeking to direct law enforcement, including the Department of Justice and the FBI, to prosecute political adversaries for improper purposes; advocating illegal violence and undermining equal protection of the laws; ordering the cruel and unconstitutional imprisonment of children and their families at the southern border and abusing emergency powers to build a border wall which Congress has explicitly refused to fund; and conspiring to illegally influence the 2016 election through a series of hush money payments.