Five Democrats from the United States House of Representatives have introduced articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.
Reps. Steve Cohen (Tennessee), Luis Gutiérrez (Illinois), Al Green (Texas), Adriano Espaillat (New York), Marcia Fudge (Ohio) and John Yarmuth (Kentucky) expressed their concern for the country’s national security during a press conference on Wednesday, November 15.
“We believe that President Trump has violated the Constitution, and we’ve introduced five articles of impeachment,” Cohen, 68, said. “The first is obstruction of justice, which deals with Mr. [James] Comey’s firing. The second is a violation of the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause, which deals with money he has taken from foreign powers without the consent of Congress. The third is a violation of the Domestic Emoluments Clause, which deals with money he’s made from the United States in his personal businesses, beyond that of his personal salary, which is also forbidden by our Constitution.”
Cohen continued, “The fourth is undermining our federal judiciary and the fifth is undermining freedom of the press. These are aggressive actions he’s taken over a period of time against the press and against the judiciary with positive actions to cap off a series, a pattern, of behavior of belittling and questioning these institutions that are so important for our democracy. … He has threatened licenses of broadcast stations over so-called ‘fake news.’”
The Associated Press noted that it is unlikely the Republican-led House will act on the articles against the 71-year-old real estate mogul. The five representatives are accusing Trump, 71, of trying to conceal information in the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s possible collusion with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, according to Fox affiliate WZTV, which published the full text of the documents.
Us Weekly has reached out to the White House for comment. In a statement to Us, Republican National Committee spokesperson Michael Ahrens said, “House Democrats lack a positive message and are completely unwilling to work across the aisle, so instead they’ve decided to support a baseless radical effort that the vast majority of Americans disagree with. Republicans are focused on issues the middle class actually cares about, like cutting taxes and growing the economy.”
