Donald Trump's Barack Obama wiretapping claims could get him impeached, says Harvard law professor

Published:

Ben Kentish
The Independent  08 March 2017
Donald Trump is potentially guilty of abuse of office, Noah Feldman said: Getty Images
Donald Trump is potentially guilty of abuse of office, Noah Feldman said:
Donald Trump’s claims that Barack Obama ordered a wiretap of his phones during the presidential campaign could lead to the Republican being impeached, a leading US law professor has said.

Noah Feldman, a professor at Harvard Law School, said the unsubstantiated claims, if proved false, could be a “major scandal” that “could get the current president impeached”.

It comes after Mr Trump posted a series of early-morning tweets in which he accused his predecessor of ordered the wiretap.

“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” he wrote.

“Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!”

“How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”

Mr Trump did not provide any evidence for his claims and his spokespeople have consistently refused to do so.

Professor Feldman said that, if the allegations are true, the scandal would be of “Watergate-level proportions” - but that a similar sized controversy would also result if they are proved to be unsubstantiated.

“Given how great the executive’s power is, accusations by the president can’t be treated asymmetrically”, he said in an article for Bloomberg.

“If the alleged action would be impeachable if true, so must be the allegation if false. Anything else would give the president the power to distort democracy by calling his opponents criminals without ever having to prove it.

“If the allegation is not true and is unsupported by evidence, that too should be a scandal on a major scale. This is the kind of accusation that, taken as part of a broader course of conduct, could get the current president impeached.”

Professor Feldman said the President has an extra responsibility to be truthful because he cannot be sued for libel in his official position.

“An allegation of potentially criminal misconduct made without evidence is itself a form of serious misconduct by the government official who makes it”, he said.

“When President Trump accuses Obama of an act that would have been impeachable and possibly criminal, that’s something much more serious than libel. If it isn’t true or provable, it’s misconduct by the highest official of the executive branch.”

Entry #734

Comments

Avatar LiLSpeedy -
#1
Tweet in chief, has proven on numerous occasions that he is a pathological LIAR and is gullible to anything that he listens to or is written on right-wing wacko sites. He like, many others view the propaganda that is written by the likes of Rushbo and Hannity and a few other propaganda web sites as gospel. These low-informed individuals believe, without questioning whether the story has validity or not. It's like the blind leading the OBTUSE.
Avatar Lucky Loser -
#2
You know, Speedy, the Republicans have no choice BUT to stand in opposition to him but, the exceptions are Splicer, Conway, your Rushs' , Hannitys' Levins' Jones', and you know the rest. He!!, Splicer went on public record saying that, "President Trump's under no obligation to provide proof for wiretap allegations." Really, Splicer? I mean, really? Um, no, the burden of proof is on the White House, dumb@ss. So, it seems here to me that Splicer is not only asserting that it's actually on Obama to prove his innocence but, that he's also telling all his fellow Republicans who are asking for proof to go phuque themselves. Oh, yeah, he is...especially to Lindsay Graham whom Trump just had lunch with yesterday. Not a peep still from Graham except, "Where's the BEEF???" This also includes Chaffetz, Cotton, Gowdy, Devin Nunes the House Intelligence Chair, and a list of others.

Speedy, we both remember how Trump only just recently made another complete @ss of himself with the voter fraud deal. He said he launched an investigation into it and we haven't heard a freakin' peep yet. Know why? Not a grain of proof and, in fact, when they did recount specific votes they found a couple more votes for him. Know what CARBOB'S new found hero, Graham, did to Trump about that BS voter fraud allegation? He tore Trump a new hair color...not @ss, hair color. CARBOB didn't like Graham at all and came out in full support of Trump right here in these blogs. Oh, but he was all giddy about Trump and Graham going to lunch thinking a bombshell was prepared. Well, it actually was but the Obama spokesman is holding his 'trump' card for now.

It's so sad, pathetic, predictable, and very entertaining all at once, man. Speedy, this man executed an initially illegal Executive Order banning Muslims which included a country he raided the very next day...Yemen. Think about that real good and then think about what happened as a result of it...our SEALS, Tribal Leader, and others. A tip off prolly occurred out anger and resentment towards Trump's @ss-inine-ness. Now, enter Iraq being removed from his new ban draft. Surely we can put all this together with Afghanistan having never made either list, right? We have soldiers there that depend on Afghan/ Iraq intel for success. But, he sent the SEALS to a country that already knew and they WERE prepared to show just how they felt about it.

"I'm gonna tell you just how much I don't like you, your people, or your religion...or non-religion. By the way, you're also banned from 'my country!!!' I'll authorize the raid over dinner with my peeps and not be in the Situation Room when it's about to all go down. Gotta tend to my tweets, you know? Then, I'm gonna show up at YOUR front door with my BEST GUYS to back it all up!!!"   -Trump-

*Speedy, on March 17th, a Writ of Declaration to nullify this election under Article 4 will go before the Supreme Court. Seriously, it's on the docket...it's real. Not sure what'll come of this but, between now and then, a lot is about to surface.



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