IMPEACH

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY.

TRUMP.

again.

“A republic, if you can keep it.” Benjamin Franklin, 1787

✦

“A republic, if you can keep it.” Benjamin Franklin, 1787 ✦

Defend democracy.

Donald Trump has been sworn in as President of the United States for a second time. Not only is he disqualified from the presidency, but he has already violated the United States Constitution. And, just like eight years ago, more violations will certainly follow. During his campaign and in the months between his election and inauguration, Trump has threatened to engage in unlawful, unconstitutional conduct. He has once more positioned himself to abuse the office for personal profit and power in violation of clear constitutional commands and at the expense of our democratic institutions, constitutional precedent, and the safety of our country’s most vulnerable.

Demand accountability.

Trump is not a monarch. He is beholden to the Constitution, as is Congress. And as the Founders understood, if we are to preserve our democracy for the people, then Congress has a duty to investigate and, if necessary, remove a corrupt executive.

Free Speech For People is calling on Congress to launch an immediate impeachment investigation to determine whether there are sufficient grounds to impeach Donald Trump for offenses that have already occurred and that will continue in the days to come. Congress must also be prepared to expand its investigation if Trump undertakes any of the other impeachable actions that he has threatened to carry out.

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The case for impeachment
on Day One

Beginning Day 1 of Trump’s second administration, Congress must open an impeachment investigation into Trump’s violations of the Emoluments Clauses and into his unlawful, corrupt campaign practices. 

1. Violations of the Emoluments Clause

The Constitution contains two clauses known as the Emoluments Clauses that prohibit a president from profiting from the United States, individual states, or foreign governments (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 9, Clause 8; and Article II, Section 1, Clause 7). The Founders understood them to provide a critical safeguard against corruption, particularly corruption of the executive by foreign powers. As Alexander Hamilton explained, the Foreign Emoluments Clause ensures that foreign powers “can neither weaken his fortitude by operating on his necessities, nor corrupt his integrity by appealing to his avarice.” The Federalist No. 73.

Trump has refused to sell his ownership stake in companies through which he is assured to receive substantial payments from foreign governments in violation of the Foreign Emoluments Clause.   At least five foreign governments pay a combined $2 million per month in fees for their units in Trump World Tower; and because all five of these foreign governments are currently paying Trump these monthly fees, Trump is in violation of the Foreign Emoluments Clause from the moment he took the oath of office. 

Congress must open an immediate impeachment investigation based on these grounds. 

Congress must also be prepared to expand its impeachment investigation if Trump receives any additional unlawful domestic or foreign emoluments via any of his business holdings, which includes: numerous real estate holdings, including golf resorts that have repeatedly hosted a golf league backed by the Saudi Arabian government; the Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns Truth Social; and World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency project that will funnel 75% of its net profits directly to Trump.

2. Unlawful, unconstitutional, and corrupt conduct during the 2024 presidential campaign

Congress’s impeachment investigation must also examine unlawful, unconstitutional, or corrupt practices that occurred during Trump’s re-election campaign, which include:

  • Violating campaign finance laws by offering benefits in exchange for campaign contributions, including (1) by offering tax and regulatory favors to oil and gas executives if they provide r $1 billion in contributions;  (2) concealing legal services payments by his campaign and related super PACs; (3) unlawfully coordinating with super PACs that supported his candidacy, including those financed by billionaires he later appointed to key administrative positions; and (4) facilitating and accepting unlawful campaign contributions from Elon Musk via X and via Musk’s million-dollar “lottery” scheme that paid out prizes only to individuals who would publicly support Trump. 

  • Using racist, xenophobic rhetoric, including by referring to  immigrants in Aurora, Colorado as “blood thirty criminals” from whom voters have to be “rescued”; repeating false claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, even after such claims led to bomb threats and other threats of violence; and referring to immigrants as committing “horrendous crimes” because of “their genes.”

  • Threatening physical violence, including murder, against political opponents, a  U.S. military commander, journalists, and protesters; and 

  • Spreading dangerous disinformation about U.S. hurricane disaster response. 

Congress must prepare to expand its scope of impeachment.

 

Since the 2024 election, Trump has promised to undertake a number of policies and practices that would, if implemented, qualify as impeachable abuses of power. These include plans to: 

  1. Unlawfully mobilize the U.S. military in U.S. cities; 

  2. Cruelly and unconstitutionally imprison and separate immigrant families; 

  3. Selectively  prosecute or otherwise seek retribution against political rivals and journalists;

  4. Appoint billionaire campaign contributors such as Elon Musk–including in manners that evade congressional oversight–to key positions that will provide them decision-making authority from which they are positioned to personally profit at the expense and to the detriment of the American people and in possible violation of the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses.

Why it matters

 

"The subject of [impeachment's] jurisdiction are those offences which proceed from the misconduct of men, or in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.” Alexander Hamilton,
The Federalist No. 65

The Framers recognized that the impeachment process is a core component of their efforts to quash corruption and protect the democracy. James Madison cautioned that elections alone are insufficient, especially for the President: “The limitation of the period of his service, was not a sufficient security… He might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppression. He might betray his trust to foreign powers… In the case of the Executive Magistracy which was to be administered by a single man, loss of capacity or corruption was more within the compass of probable events, and either of them might be fatal to the Republic.” James Madison, Notes of the Debates in the Federal Convention of 1987.

The Framers also understood that the impeachment process can also address corrupt acts in obtaining the office. George Mason asked rhetorically: “Shall the man who has practised corruption and by that means procured his appointment in the first instance, be suffered to escape punishment, by repeating his guilt?” (In 2010, Federal Judge Thomas Porteous was impeached and convicted largely based on conduct that occurred before he assumed federal office – including making false statements to the Senate and FBI in connection with his nomination and confirmation.) The Constitution Demands It: The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump, by Ron Fein, John Bonifaz, and Ben Clements, foreword by John Nichols (Melville House 2018), p. 29.

If a President commits an impeachable offense – whether through corrupt acts in reaching the office, whether on the first day of their term, or whether on any day thereafter during their term – Congress has a constitutional duty to impeach him. We The People therefore call upon Congress to meet its obligations, and to join us in committing to the idea that ourt Constitution, when read properly and followed faithfully, protects everyone from abuses of power, even abuses by those holding the highest offices in the land.