A recent issue of The Progressive magazine (www.progressive.org) (I didn’t write down which month in late 2019 or early 2020) reported this during the timer when Trump’s impeachment was underway:
“Donald Trump and his allies like to throw around terms like ‘witch-hunt’ when talking about the ongoing impeachment probe. In fact, there are innumerable instances in which the President appears to have actually broken existing laws. Here are some of them:
U.S. Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause: It is illegal for any U.S. federal office-holder to accept anything of value from any foreign official or government:
Trump, who calls this part of the Constitution “phony,” has raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars from foreign visitors seeking to curry favor by staying at his hotel in Washington, D.C., and even tried to schedule the 2020 international G7 summit at his Florida resort.
18 U.S.C. Section 1503: No person may “corruptly or by threats or force … influence, obstruct, or impede the due administration of justice”:
The Mueller report identified ten instances in which trump likely obstructed justice. He has since engaged in more obstruction of the impeachment inquiry.
Federal Election Campaign Act: No individual may give more than $2,700 to any candidate for federal office per election, and all donations must be reported:
During the 2016 election, Michael Cohen, at Trump’s direction, paid two women $130,000 and $150,000, respectively, to keep mum about their affairs with Trump, a crime for which Cohen is now serving time.
Federal Ethics Rule, Section 2635.702: A member of the executive branch “shall not use his public office for his own private gain.”
Since taking office, Trump has spent around 300 days on properties he owns, extracting huge sums of taxpayers’ money to accommodate Secret Service staff and others who accompany him.
52 U.S. Code, Section 30121: As explained by Federal Election Commission Chair Ellen L. Weintraub, “It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election.”:
Trump pressured the president of Ukraine to dig up dirt on a political rival and made a similar overture to China.
Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution: The President must “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
Trump has repeatedly violated this Constitutional requirement by, among other things, inciting violence at his rallies, seeking a “total and complete” ban on Muslims entering the country, and forcefully separating migrant children from their parents.
