Bring Back Bartlet

Normally, I don’t take much notice of lawyers when they impinge on the body politic. One exception was Lionel Tribbey, who left a lucrative Chicago practice to take up the appointment of Senior White House Counsel to President Josiah Bartlet, a major character in The West Wing. When two administration White House assistants purposely infringe the law, causing Tribbey to delay a vacation to resolve the problem, he storms into the Oval Office, using these immortal words: “I will kill people today. I will kill people with this cricket bat, which was given to me by Her Royal Majesty Elizabeth Windsor, and then I will kill them again with my own hands. I was ready to take a vacation, Mr. President, I was ready to go someplace warm, with a beach, somebody bringing me drinks with little umbrellas in them!” Now, that’s what I call lawyering.

I often wonder whether Tribbey’s character and name was borrowed from Laurence H. Tribe, (also pronounced Tribbey) who is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School. Tribe is one of the most respected lawyers in his field. Many lawyers believe it is a pity that he has not been raised to the Supreme Court bench. I respect his legal opinions, so when he writes that the time has come for Congress to launch an impeachment investigation of President Trump for obstruction of justice, I sit up and take notice.

Tribe’s case is that America is faced with a President whose conduct strongly suggests that he poses a danger to the system of government. Impeachable offenses could theoretically have been charged from the outset of this Presidency. Tribe cites as an example Trump’s brazen defiance of the foreign emoluments clause, which is designed to prevent foreign powers from pressuring U.S. officials to stray from undivided loyalty to the United States. By retaining some influence on the Trump business empire, the breach continues daily.

There are now multiple investigations underway into the whims of an authoritarian leader. Tribe argues that Comey’s summary firing will not stop the Russian inquiry, yet it represents an obvious effort to interfere with a probe involving national security matters vastly more serious than the “third-rate burglary” that Nixon tried to cover up in Watergate. The question of Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign goes to the heart of America’s system of government and ability to conduct free and fair elections.

Consider, too, writes Tribe, how Trump embroiled Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and Attorney General Sessions, despite Sessions’ recusal from involvement in the Russia investigation, in preparing phony justifications for the firing. Trump also used both Vice President Pence and White House staff to propagate a set of blatant untruths before giving an interview to NBC’s Lester Holt that exposed the truth about firing the FBI Director. Trump admitted he had made up his mind long before receiving the opinions of his law officers.

Tribe comments that the Trump/Comey encounter was even more sinister, with Trump insisting that Comey pledge “loyalty” to him in order to retain his job. Publicly saying he saw nothing wrong with demanding such loyalty, the President turned to Twitter with a none-too-subtle threat that Comey would regret any decision to disseminate his version of his conversations with Trump, something that Comey has every right, and indeed a civic duty, to do. I’m not personally confident about this allegation: in the midst of a red scare, President Harry Truman insisted that all administration officials swear a loyalty oath or be dismissed and Congress raised no sustained objection.

Tribe’s major point is to say that if the evidence does not in itself rise to the level of “obstruction of justice”, that phrase is to empty the concept of all meaning. Obstruction of justice was the first count in the articles of impeachment against Nixon and, years later, a count against Bill Clinton. In Nixon’s case, the list of actions that together were deemed to constitute impeachable obstruction reads like a forecast of what Trump may have done decades later, making misleading statements to, or withholding material evidence from, federal investigators or other federal employees; trying to interfere with FBI or congressional investigations; trying to break through the FBI’s shield surrounding ongoing criminal investigations; dangling carrots in front of people who might otherwise pose trouble for one’s hold on power.

Tribe makes an interesting legal case but would a Congress of the president’s own party to initiate an impeachment inquiry? Are the votes there? A majority in the House is required to approve article of impeachment and 67 Senate votes are required to convict. When all is said, impeachment is more a political than a legal process and if the votes are not there, why proceed? Trump’s unpopularity seems to be on the increase and if Congressional Republicans start to see their seats are at risk in the 2018 mid-terms, minds may change.

 What if Trump is convicted? He will be followed by V.P. Pence, who was the safety valve on the Republican ticket last year. He is a right-wing Republican, popular with the Part’s base. However, he has hardly distinguished himself since Inauguration. He has been described as one who, on any given day, will do his customary imitation of a bobble-head. Standing near Trump in the Oval Office, he nods his head robotically as the President says one asinine thing after another. Pence is the most prominent and highest-ranked of Trump’s lackeys. His apparent naivete and trust are routinely abused by Trump who has him vouch for things that are not true. Pence had to deny there was talk of sanctions between Mike Flynn and the Russians and, more recently, the reason Comey was fired as FBI director. In both instances, the President either lied to Pence or failed to tell him the truth. The result was the same: The Vice President appeared clueless.

Like most nations, there is a national barometer that does not like surprises. The US stock market has been unfazed by Trump’s shenanigans. This may mean that Tribe will have to wait a while for his predictions of a Trump impeachment to come true. For sure, none of this would have happened during President Bartlet’s incumbency.

­- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Since writing this blog, three things happened. The Justice Department announced the appointment of former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special prosecutor to investigate the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. I have yet to read the precise terms of reference and the powers given to Mueller but there is no doubt that a political circus will occur in Washington this summer.

 The President’s reaction was both expected and odd. “No politician in history - and I say this with great surety - has been treated worse or more unfairly.” Had he written this in a history exam, he would have been given an F. If limited to America, Harry Truman was treated abominably both when he entered Congress and between 1946 and 1948. Going back in time, Jesus Christ was a victim of politics, as was Jean D’Arc and Socrates. Finally, the US stock market suffered its biggest fall this year. Are these signals that the Trump Presidency is starting to crumble? Let’s see how many Republican members of Congress follow John McCain, who said yesterday there was a feeling of Watergate in the air.