(KFTK) – Saint Louis University School of Law Professor, and expert on U.S. Presidential powers, Greg Willard joined Randy recently to discuss the impeachment push.
"I think what we have witnessed the last 120 days, Randy, would come as no surprise to the framers of the Constitution," says Professor Willard. "They specifically talked about in the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and others, that the House of Representatives, may from time to time, act with passion and emotion. And goodness knows, we have seen plenty of that on display."
Willard says the impeachable conduct doesn't even have to be a crime, "we need look no farther than the first presidential impeachment by President Andrew Johnson. The conduct for which he was impeached, there were 11 articles of impeachment against President Johnson, he was tried on three. Not one of them was the underlying conduct alleged to be a crime."
"It's remarkable," laughs Professor Willard about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's 'hold' on the impeachment articles, "there's no way to describe it." Willard says the Constitution has some gaps that the majority in each house must fill-in.
What about the thought that President Trump hasn't been impeached until the articles are submitted to the Senate?
"With all due respect to the law professors who were spouting that, that's just silly," says the former White House staff assistant and personal aide for President Gerald Ford. "I would give the analogy, impeachment is like an indictment. If someone is indicted for a crime, and after they are indicted they die, so that indictment is never presented at trial against the accused. That doesn't change the fact that the poor person who was deceased that they were indicted. In that sense, President Trump has been impeached, like it or not."
© 2019 KFTK (Entercom). All rights reserved
