A conservative lawyer has issued a blistering takedown of President Donald Trump’s attempt to prosecute six Democratic members of Congress.
Andrew McCarthy, a Fox News legal analyst and editor of the National Review, said an effort by the Justice Department to criminally indict Democrats made another impeachment of Trump more likely.
Trump was impeached twice during his first term in office. In any case, he was acquitted of all charges by the Senate.
“The president will be promptly impeached if the Democrats regain control of the House after the November midterms, an outcome that his abuses of power have also made very likely,” McCarthy wrote in a column published in the National Review Wednesday.
“This will be the legacy of yesterday’s reported failed attempt by the Trump Justice Department to criminally indict the ‘Seditious Six,’ as the Democrats in question have been labeled by Trump supporters.”
McCarthy personally characterized Trump’s attacks on the six Democrats as “intolerable” and “impeachable”. He wrote that there was “no plausible justification for the proposed indictment” against Sens. Mark Kelly (Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (Mich.) and Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.), Maggie Goodlander (NH), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.) and Chris Deluzio (Pa.).
Those Democrats were targeted by Trump last year after they released a joint video reminding active-duty members of the military and intelligence community of their duty to refuse illegal orders. Trump called for the Democrats to face arrest, and posted on Truth Social that their message amounted to “SEDIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors argued before a Washington grand jury that Democratic lawmakers violated a federal statute that prohibits interference with the loyalty, morale or discipline of the US armed forces.
The grand jury declined to approve the charges sought by the US attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro’s office.
McCarthy wrote that the Democrats committed “no crime.” He went on to condemn Trump for using the criminal justice system to target political rivals.
“More than capricious tariffs, the president’s signature policy is the bullying of the law — the tin dictator-style expliiitation of law enforcement power to punish political enemies and scapegoats and to settle old scores,” McCarthy wrote.
Democrats in Congress also spoke out in defense of their colleagues, sounding the same alarms as McCarthy.
Speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said Trump’s use of the DOJ to target lawmakers could threaten the rule of law.
“The fact that they failed to employ a US senator should not avoid our outrage. They tried to impeach two of us,” said Schatz. “I’m not entirely sure the United States Senate can survive this if we don’t have Republicans standing.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Tracking the Trump Administration
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