Author: Allan J. Lichtman
The impeachment of a President of the United States is a very serious matter and also a very rare one. Only two presidents have been impeached in the entire history of the presidency – Andrew Johnson in the nineteenth century and Bill Clinton in the twentieth. It therefore follows that to suggest that a president be impeached is a very serious matter.
In The Case for Impeachment, Allan J. Lichtman outlines the reasons why Donald Trump should be so treated. They are widespread and comprehensive and include both financial and political chicanery.
In his introduction, Lichtman deals with the allegations of Russian interference in the election that took Trump to the White House.The evidence of such interference is described by the author as “circumstantial but powerful” – in other words, no proof of such collusion exists. One weakness of the book in this area is that Lichtman deals with the various attempts by the Trump minions to cover up details of correspondence on this matter. The question of whether Trump himself was aware of these matters is not very clear.
On the various financial and other dealings of Trump, Lichtman is on much firmer ground. This is due to the fact that much detail of the deals is a matter of public record. The Trump method of dealing with accusations against him was to attack the department or person making the accusation rather than answering it.
A clear violation of the housing act whereby a coloured man was denied the possibility of renting a Trump property occurred in 1973 and after much litigation Trump reached a “settlement “with the United States Government in 1975 which he spun to show that his company had done nothing wrong.
Much of Trump’s dealing with various charitable foundations is highly suspect. It is suggested that he used such foundations to squirrel away money which, if placed elsewhere, would be subject to taxation.
In short, this book outlines the many obfuscations and evasions characterizing the Trump approach to life. However, the reluctance to impeach a president, as in the case of Richard Nixon, and the undesirability of taking such an action make impeachment a difficult proposition.
A comprehensive and interesting analysis making the case for the impeachment of US President Donald Trump!
> Naomi Round
