In his first four weeks back in the White House, Donald Trump has attempted to illegally eliminate entire government agencies, fire hundreds of thousands of federal workers, halt cancer research, oust nearly all U.S. inspector generals, block enforcement of anti-bribery laws, cancel U.S. funding for life saving HIV/AIDS programs around the world and begun the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, sending some to the prison at Guantanamo Bay Naval base in Cuba to evade U.S. laws. Billionaire Elon Musk, who contributed over $280 million to Trump and other Republican candidates’ campaigns, has led this demolition of the federal government under cover of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE advisory group.
Trump, who declared that he would be a dictator on day one during the 2024 election campaign, has taken dozens of autocratic actions and engaged in corrupt behavior, which have been challenged for violating the U.S. Constitution’s checks and balances on executive power. Trump’s conduct has provoked nationwide protests and 74 lawsuits where judges thus far have issued 18 injunctions to temporarily halt Trump’s illegal actions.
Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with John Bonifaz, a constitutional attorney, and co-founder and president of the group Free Speech For People, who examines the illicit ongoing Trump–Musk coup and constitutional crisis that has resulted in calls for impeachment.
JOHN BONIFAZ: Well, we define it as high crimes and misdemeanors, abuses of power and impeachable offenses. I mean, the Framers made clear with respect to the Constitution, there would be three co-equal branches of government. Article One of the Constitution covers the United States Congress. Article Two covers the presidency. Article Three covers the judiciary.
But this particular individual who’s occupying the Oval Office thinks nothing of that framing of the Constitution, nothing of the way our government’s been set up and he wants to be king.
And yet, the Framers were clear that there would be no kings in America. There would be no monarchs. And so the answer there is in Article Two, Section Four, the impeachment clause, because the Framers recognized that there might be a chief executive, a president who engages in these kinds of abuses of power and would need to be removed via the impeachment power of the United States Congress.
And that’s why we launched Impeach Trump Again on Inauguration Day. He already, Donald Trump, had come in to the presidency having violated the Emoluments Clause, refusing to divest from his business interests all around the world. And he already had engaged in corrupt practices and unlawful practices leading up to the occupation of the White House. But then, since the time that he took the oath and assumed the office, he has engaged in multiple new offenses almost on a daily basis with respect to his actions.
And that is why at Impeach Trump Again, where we’ve detailed all these offenses, including the abuse of the pardon power, usurping the power to appropriate money, the decision to declare an emergency at the border, to unlawfully send military to the border, the list goes on.
And this president is lawless. He needs to be held accountable. And that’s why we’ve launched this campaign. More than 220,000 people across the country have joined it, and the momentum will only continue to grow.
SCOTT HARRIS: John, certainly, you and our listeners understand that impeachment that was tried twice in Trump’s first administration failed because Republicans — in their loyalty to Trump — refused to hold him accountable. And impeachment, as I understand it, only works if both parties can get three-quarters of the votes they need in the Senate, which runs a trial for impeachment, can produce those votes.
And it seems we have a Republican party that remains loyal to Trump, regardless of how he is burning the Constitution as we speak.
JOHN BONIFAZ: Correct. And yet we have this existential moment we face. And so the question is, are we going to stand up and demand that our members of Congress, who also took an oath to protect the Constitution, are they going to be forced to follow that mandate of the oath and to invoke the impeachment clause?
Some of them still claim to believe in the Constitution in the U.S. Congress. Some of them still claim to believe in the rule of law and some of them are saying we’re in this constitutional crisis. So the answer has to be invoking the Impeachment Clause.
Look, we recognize appreciably the people that the votes are not there today to initiate impeachment proceedings against this president.
But that does not mean we don’t start the process. Congressman Al Green of Houston has already said he will be introducing articles of impeachment and we will be working with him on that. But he should not be the only one. There ought to be many other members of Congress who claim to believe in the Constitution of our democracy say they’re standing up and fighting for it who stand with Congressman Greene and demand that impeachment proceedings begin.
The fact of the matter is that this will be a grassroots from a bottom up process in terms of how it happens. And we the people must demand this because there is no other remedy in the Constitution with respect to dealing with this situation. There’s a 25th Amendment when the president is not seen to be capable of carrying out the presidency.
But really, the way this works with respect to abuses of power is the impeachment clause. And that’s the way we have to go in terms of approaching this. That doesn’t mean we don’t also fight the fights we’re doing in the courts. You know, that doesn’t mean we also don’t go to the streets and be clear and be loud.
But it does mean that we make clear to this president and to members of Congress who claim to protect the Constitution and defend the oath that they need to be held accountable and they need to stand up and demand that this president face impeachment proceedings.
John Bonifaz is also co-author of the 2018 book, The Constitution Demands It: The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump.
For more information, visit Free Speech For People at freespeechforpeople.
Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with John Bonifaz (25:26) and see more articles and opinion pieces in the Related Links section of this page.
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