CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, September 25, 2017

Can a former President be impeached?

Allegory. "Imagine the year as 1974: Even though President Nixon ’wiretapped’ the communications of Candidate Jimmy Carter and Carter’s campaign manager, looking for a Russian connection, President-Elect Jimmy Carter is set to replace Nixon.

"At the U.N., Nixon’s ambassador is reading NSA intercepts of Carter’s presidential transition team and ’unmasking’ hundred of their identities. Nixon’s CIA is spying on the internal communications of the Senate Intelligence Committee. His team orders an illegal surveillance of reporter, James Rosen, and the Associated Press. Under oath, Nixon’s director of National Intelligence and Nixon’s CIA director swear to Congress that no illegal communications intercepts are taking place.

"During the campaign, President Nixon is using back channels to undermine the incoming Carter Administration’s nuclear negotiations with Iran so the ’deal’ would not have to be ratified by the U.S. Senate. Nixon tells the Russian ambassador if he, Nixon, could remain in office, how Nixon would be ’more flexible’ in dealing with Russia. Hoping for a flattering movie, Nixon gives classified material captured in the bin Laden raid to favored Hollywood filmmakers.

"Nixon allows his secretary of state to set up an illegal server which she uses to distribute classified information in an illegal and unsecured fashion, lies about it, destroys thousands of e-mails central to an investigation — and gets off without an indictment. She provides inadequate security for her mission in Benghazi, gets four Americans killed, and then tells the loved ones of the dead that the cause was a home-made video few people had ever seen.

"Nixon allowed her to arrange for the Russians to gain control over 20-percent of U.S. uranium supplies in exchange for a $2.35 million donation to her foundation and for a $500,000 speaking fee for her husband who held a private meeting with Nixon’s attorney general on a government aircraft at a Phoenix airport. Even though the attorney general has no grandchildren, she said the airport meeting was to discuss grandchildren.

"Nixon conspired with the head of the Republican National Committee to make sure his secretary of state would get his party’s nomination. Nixon ’weaponized’ the IRS to deny tax-exempt status to his and her political opponents and turns the U.S. military into an ’emasculated’ social experiment."

But wait! This is all wrong. Must have been a bad dream. Richard Nixon could not have done all this. Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974. All this skullduggery must have taken place under some other U.S. president. Which raises the question: Can a former U.S. president be impeached? Probably, not impeached; however, even former presidents, should not be above the law.

So, if those who are in office now and sworn to uphold the laws of the United States were inclined to do so, a former president and a former secretary of state, some of her associates, a former attorney general, a former NSC staffer, two former ambassadors to the U.N., a former CIA director, and a former director of national intelligence could all be called to the bar of Justice.

Likely to happen? If the current Department of Justice is under the control of holdovers from the previous administration, then probably not. We report. You decide.

(c)2017. William Hamilton.

Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, is a laureate of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame, the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma University Army ROTC Wall of Fame, and is a recipient of the University of Nebraska 2015 Alumni Achievement Award. He was educated at the University of Oklahoma, the George Washington University, the U.S Naval War College, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University. For more, see: www.central-view.com.

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Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com