I think it's exactly as some have said: Trump is a useful idiot, making noise as the the real life equivalents to Scandal's Cyrus Beene push all the wet dream projects through while they still hold a trinity of power...and once they've gotten all that passed and/ or lose the majority in 2018, they'll find reason to dispose of him.
I'm trying to decide on which side of the 2018 election he'll be out. Left up to him alone, I'd say before, but it will probably depend on his approval ratings and how many wars we're in by then.
Because the President has to commit the crime in office, I presume. I mean, if Bill Clinton got a drunk in public a few days before inauguration, would you support impeachment?
Because as was explained back during President Clinton's legal troubles including the sexual harassment stuff that took place well BEFORE he took office. You would be effectively giving a handful of people (prosecutor, judge, jury) the power to override the will of tens of millions of American voters.
That's what the temper-tantrum brigade has been having wet dreams about since he was elected. Of course the idea that this could set precedent to be used against one of their own partisan hacks never occurs to them, much like it never occurred to them to condemn Obama's concentration of power in the executive branch lest it end up in the hands of a political enemy, because surely a Republican would never ever occupy the office ever again.
Didn't we have people on this very forum just last year saying they couldn't see a Republican becoming president in the foreseeable future thanks to demographics?
Because it is a felony to hack computer systems and release private info? They would still have to connect it to him some how but given that there is video of him publicly calling for exactly that hack before it happened... Well, it doesn't look good but if they could get someone to turn state's evidence in exchange for a plea deal it just might happen.
Pretty sure Trump has plenty of people to fall on their swords on this one, if that's what indeed happened.
The will of 270-538 voters. That said, I agree the President can't be removed from office as penalty for conviction of a crime until after the Senate has convicted them after the House has impeached them. But I don't see anything in the Constitution that prevents a President from being arrested, charged, convicted, or jailed whilst retaining the powers of the office. (this in contrast to the legislators)
Accepting the pardon was a de facto admission of guilt whether Nixon understood that or not. You can't be pardoned for what you didn't do.