The Atlantic

The Founders Would Have Called Out Trump for Bribery

There’s no need to debate “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Bribery is enough for removal.
Source: Leah Mills / Reuters

“Where are the high crimes and misdemeanors?” That’s the question opponents of impeachment keep asking as Democrats investigate President Donald Trump.

“There aren’t any high crimes and misdemeanors,” Rush Limbaugh declares. “There aren’t any impeachable offenses.”

“There are no high crimes and misdemeanors,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise insists.

That ambiguous phrase, high crimes and misdemeanors, comes from the Constitution. “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors,” it states.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic17 min read
How America Became Addicted to Therapy
A few months ago, as I was absent-mindedly mending a pillow, I thought, I should quit therapy. Then I quickly suppressed the heresy. Among many people I know, therapy is like regular exercise or taking vitamin D: something a sensible person does rout
The Atlantic4 min readAmerican Government
How Democrats Could Disqualify Trump If the Supreme Court Doesn’t
Near the end of the Supreme Court’s oral arguments about whether Colorado could exclude former President Donald Trump from its ballot as an insurrectionist, the attorney representing voters from the state offered a warning to the justices—one evoking
The Atlantic4 min read
Hayao Miyazaki’s Anti-war Fantasia
Once, in a windowless conference room, I got into an argument with a minor Japanese-government official about Hayao Miyazaki. This was in 2017, three years after the director had announced his latest retirement from filmmaking. His final project was

Related Books & Audiobooks