John Bonifaz discusses impeachment on “Counterpoint”

On Monday, Free Speech For People President John Bonifaz sat down with Scott Harris on “Counterpoint” to discuss the ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Trump. Following the first week of public hearings, John weighed in on the key takeaways from the current investigation, why the scope of the inquiry should be expanded, and how citizens can play a role in the movement to impeach Trump.

“What I think is most important to focus on, with respect to what’s been revealed in this current impeachment inquiry, is that the president of the United States engaged in extortion and bribery of a foreign government to assist his reelection campaign,” John said. “He used hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money in foreign assistance as a means to commit that extortion and bribery, and these are clearly high crimes for which the president should be held accountable.”

John was quick to point out that the current impeachment inquiry, while informative, fails to prosecute Trump for numerous additional impeachable offenses. This has led Free Speech For People and its allies to publish “Impeachment For The People,” which calls on Congress to expand the scope of the inquiry to include: obstruction of justice in the Russia investigation, racist abuses of power, violation of the Emoluments Clause, corruption of the electoral process, and abuse of office to target political adversaries.

“It’s a serious constitutional and strategic mistake to go forward with only a narrow set of articles that does not address the full range of Donald Trump’s abuses of power,” John told Harris. “Impeachment is about patterns, patterns of abuse of power. Even in the Watergate scandal, the focus wasn’t solely on the break-in of the Watergate and the DNC headquarters; it was about the pattern of abuse of power that Richard Nixon was engaged in. He faced three articles of impeachment, one of which was his obstruction of Congress in the impeachment inquiry and another which dealt with misusing the powers of the government to attack his political adversaries…and I think that’s what’s significant here. We have a series of abuses of power this president has committed, from the moment he took the oath of office leading to today, and we need to establish the serious precedent for the future.”

John’s top advice for people who believe Trump must be held accountable for his abuses of power is the make their voices heard. Call Members of Congress and later Senators, write letters to the editor, and mobilize the night before the House votes on articles of impeachment (see Impeach.org for a list of events across the country).

“We have to stay vigilant. This is a direct threat to our democracy coming out of the Oval Office in President Trump. We are at a critical threshold in American history, and the question is whether we’re all going to stand up to defend and protect our democracy at this moment in history.”

You can hear the full “Counterpoint” interview on Between the Lines.


Over 100 Cities Hold Day of Impeachment Action Against Donald Trump

On Saturday, June 15th, more than 13,000 Americans gathered at 142 events across the country, calling on Congress to begin an impeachment inquiry against President Trump. Free Speech For People was proud to partner with MoveOn and By the People for this historic event, the largest national mobilization for impeachment to date.

Free Speech for People President John Bonifaz addressed more than 100 people in Northampton’s Pulaski Park, saying, “We refuse to be silent. We refuse to walk away. We will rise to demand that members of Congress carry out their Constitutional duty and start an impeachment inquiry of this President.”

Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, who chairs the House Committee on Rules, also addressed the crowd in Northampton: “I’ve seen enough. I’ve seen the Mueller report, this administration is not complying with requests. If we turn a blind eye to him ignoring Congress, we set a terrible precedent.”

Rep. McGovern addresses the crowd in Northampton, MA

Meanwhile in Boston, Free Speech For People’s Board Chair Ben Clements told protesters on the Common, “This is how autocracies take root. This is how democracies die…Our country cannot afford to wait. We will not sit idly by while a corrupt, lawless, racist, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic, bigoted, unfit President tramples on our Constitution and our people.”

Sixty-seven members of Congress have now voiced public support for an impeachment inquiry to date, and thirteen have become co-sponsors of a House resolution to start such an inquiry, introduced by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Al Green (D-TX) in March. Many were in attendance at events around the country on Saturday, including Rep. Tlaib in Detroit, Rep. Green in Houston, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) in Portland, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) in New York City, and Rep. Madeleine Dean, Rep Mary Gay Scanlon, and Rep. Brendan Boyle in Philadelphia. A recent Reuters poll found that 45 percent of Americans support impeachment, compared to 42 percent opposed. The percentage in favor of impeachment is significantly higher than it was when Congress began an impeachment inquiry into Richard Nixon.

Free Speech For People has been a leader in the impeachment movement since January 2017, when we created the Impeach Donald Trump Now campaign with RootsAction. Following the release of our book in August 2018, The Constitution Demands It: The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump, we launched The Impeachment Project as a new resource for this movement. To read our grounds for impeachment, click here.

MoveOn and By the People will hold an organizing call on next steps for the impeachment movement on Tuesday, June 18th at 8:30 PM EST. To RSVP, visit www.impeachmentguide.com. Representatives Al Green, Jamie Raskin, and Rashida Tlaib will all be featured speakers on the call.


Order The Constitution Demands It Today!