After 6 months of Trump’s presidency, a Democratic representative has introduced the first article of impeachment against President Donald Trump. Democrat Brad Sherman of California has become the first US lawmaker to formally file an article of impeachment against the President. However, his effort is likely to stall in the Republican-controlled Congress.
Following on the threat, Sherman made last month to seek to remove the president from office, he filed a four-page resolution aimed at “impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanours”. Sherman alleges Trump committed obstruction of justice by firing former FBI Director James Comey amid agency investigations into Russian meddling in the US election.
“Such conduct,” Mr Sherman writes in the article, “warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.”
“Recent disclosures by Donald Trump Jr indicate that Trump’s campaign was eager to receive assistance from Russia,” Sherman said. “It now seems likely that the president had something to hide when he tried to curtail the investigation of (now-fired) national security adviser Michael Flynn and the wider Russian probe,” he added.
“I believe his conversations with, and subsequent firing of, FBI Director James Comey constitute obstruction of justice.”
Notably, to take effect, however, articles of impeachment must pass the House by a majority vote – an unlikely outcome in today’s Republican-controlled chamber. So far, only one other Democrat – Texas Representative Al Green – has publicly expressed support for impeachment proceedings. Aware of this, Sherman in a statement said he does not expect impeachment to happen immediately. Instead, he hopes the article will inspire an “intervention” in the White House, and encourage the executive branch to control its “uncontrollable impulses”.
