Judge Andrew P. Napolitano: Trump, impeachment and the Constitution
Fox News
The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, thus, all government behavior must conform to it.
President Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 for firing his secretary of war, in defiance of a statute -- which was no doubt unconstitutional -- prohibiting him from doing so. Whatever he did, it was not criminal, nor was it the type of behavior that affected the security of the republic. He was a southerner who was despised by the Radical Republicans who ran the government after Lincoln’s death. He was acquitted in the Senate by one vote. President Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 for lying under oath about a private consensual sexual relationship. There was a crime -- perjury -- but it was not of the species of crime that the framers contemplated when they wrote "other high crimes and misdemeanors." It surely lacked the gravity of treason and bribery.More Related News