“High Crimes and Misdemeanors”

 

Free Republic

High Crimes and Misdemeanors

The U.S. Constitution provides impeachment as the method for removing the president, vice president, federal judges, and other federal officials from office. The impeachment process begins in the House of Representatives and follows these steps: 1.The House Judiciary Committee holds hearings and, if necessary, prepares articles of impeachment. These are the charges against the official. 2.If a majority of the committee votes to approve the articles, the whole House debates and votes on them. 3.If a majority of the House votes to impeach the official on any article, then the official must then stand trial in the Senate. 4.For the official to be removed from office, two-thirds of the Senate must vote to convict the official. Upon conviction, the official is automatically removed from office and, if the Senate so decides, may be forbidden from holding governmental office again.

The impeachment process is political in nature, not criminal. Congress has no power to impose criminal penalties on impeached officials. But criminal courts may try and punish officials if they have committed crimes.

The Constitution sets specific grounds for impeachment. They are “treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors.” To be impeached and removed from office, the House and Senate must find that the official committed one of these acts.

DHS Fails to Remove Aliens Who Pose National Security, Public Safety Threat

JUDICIAL WATCH

The monstrous agency created after 9/11 to protect the United States from more terrorist attacks instead compromises national security by failing to track how many unauthorized foreigners-some felons in their native country-it refuses to prosecute under President Obama’s broad amnesty initiative.

One of the president’s many tools to reward illegal immigrants with amnesty is a measure known as prosecutorial discretion, which allows federal agencies to decide to what degree they enforce certain laws against particular individuals. For years the system has spared a myriad of illegal aliens from removal by authorizing-and encouraging-low-level field officers to block deportations by using an outrageously broad list of exemptions. Under prosecutorial discretion guidelines issued in 2011, droves of illegal aliens have been allowed to stay in the country, but no one really knows the exact amount.