"for the safety of the state is the supreme law, and these bodies are the final judges thereof" - A Look At Impeachment

The federal bribery statute, 18 U.S. Code Section 201 has three basic elements: 1) giving or promising to give something of value, 2) to a public official, 3) in order to influence any official act by that public official, or in order to get that public official to commit a fraud or allow a fraud to occur, or to get that public official to do something in violation of their duty or to not do something required by their duty.

Trump did not commit bribery since he withheld something of value.

Under 18 U.S. Code Section 872, extortion has three basic elements: 1) a public official (or someone pretending to be a public official), 2) extracts a thing of value from another person, 3) by the use of threats, placing the person in fear of injury, or kidnaping the person.

Trump (a public official) attempted to “extract a thing of value” (an investigation into Joe Biden) by the use of threats (the withholding of funding), he put the person in fear of injury (the funding is to help protect against Russian aggression).

Every bribery or extortion charge necessarily has a “quid pro quo.” However, not every “quid pro quo” is a crime. If one person offers another $5,000.00 to purchase a car, that is simply a contract for the sale of a car. Although there is a quid pro quo (“I’ll give you $5,000.00 if you give me your car”) that is not illegal. On the other hand, if the quid pro quo is money in exchange for a public official’s act (“I’ll give you $5000.00 if you give my company the public works contract”) then that is certainly illegal.

The above is from duffylawct.com

The U.S. Constitution states that the President, Vice President and all civil officers of the U.S. may be removed from office on impeachment if they are found guilty of any treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors.

On Tuesday Trump’s legal time stated:

“Even if everything in there was true, it constitutionally doesn’t rise to that level” of an impeachable offense, said Sekulow.

In an article from 1867, the Atlantic discusses impeachment:

The Constitution provides, in express terms, that the President, as well as the Vice-President and all civil officers, may be impeached for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” It was framed by men who had learned to their sorrow the falsity of the English maxim, that “the king can do no wrong,” and established by the people, who meant to hold all their public servants, the highest and the lowest, to the strictest accountability.

The terms “high crimes and misdemeanors,” like many other terms and phrases used in the Constitution, as, for instance, “pardon,” “habeas corpus,” “ex post facto,” and the term “impeachment” itself, had a settled meaning at the time of the establishment of the Constitution. There was no need of definition…

The terms “high crimes and misdemeanors,” in their natural sense, embrace a very large field of actions. They are broad enough to cover all criminal misconduct of the President, — all acts of commission or omission forbidden by the Constitution and the laws. To the word “misdemeanor,” indeed, is naturally attached a yet broader signification, which would embrace personal character and behavior as well as the proprieties of official conduct. Nor was, nor is, there any just reason why it should be restricted in this direction; for, in establishing a permanent national government, to insure purity and dignity, to secure the confidence of its own people and command the respect of foreign powers, it is not unfit that civil officers, and most especially the highest of all, the head of the people, should be answerable for personal demeanor.

In 1797, articles of impeachment were found against William Blount, a Senator. The misdemeanors were not charged as being done in the execution of any office under the United States. He was not charged with misconduct in office, but with an attempt to influence a United States Indian interpreter, and to alienate the affection and confidence of the Indians. After the impeachment was known, but before it was presented to the Senate, the Senate expelled him, resolving “that he was guilty of a high misdemeanor entirely inconsistent with his public trust and duty as a Senator.”

(after citing additional examples, the author of the article sums it up…)

In fine, it may almost be said, that for a President to have done anything which he ought not to have done, or to have left undone anything which he ought to have done, is just cause for his impeachment, if the House by a majority vote feels called on to make it the ground of charges, and the Senate by a two-thirds vote determines it to be sufficient; for the safety of the state is the supreme law, and these bodies are the final judges thereof.