Impeach Trump Over the Cohen Indictment?
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Sept.-Nov. Volume 7, ISSUE 1 Impeach Trump over the Cohen Indictment? Skyler Goldberg Michael Cohen, President Though Mason spoke only of bribing elec- Donald Trump’s longtime attorney, pleaded guilty tors, Sunstein extends the principle to all cases of on Aug. 21 to eight cam- electoral misconduct. He says the framers sought to paign finance violations. protect the electoral process, which they saw as Cohen admitted that he “sacrosanct.” donated more money to Under this standard, could the president be Trump’s presidential cam- impeached? Cohen alleges that Trump directed him paign than the law per- to pay the hush money to protect his candidacy. mits. Cohen paid this money to adult film actresses Some might argue that hiding such significant infor- Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal to secure their mation from voters undermines the electoral pro- silence regarding their alleged affairs with Trump, cess and is thus impeachable. who feared that public knowledge of these affairs Others would contend that concealing a legal would sink his campaign. affair is quite different that bribing electors. In fact, While these charges seem to implicate the many Democrats argued at the time of the Monica president in a crime, legal scholars are less sure Lewinsky scandal that what goes on in the presi- whether they are impeachable. The Constitution dent’s bedroom is private. Back then, Democrats empowers Congress to remove a president upon thought that President Bill Clinton couldn’t be im- “Conviction of() Treason, Bribery, or other high peached even for lying under oath about his sex life. Crimes and Misdemeanors.” But what are “high In the same way, one could reject Cohen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors”? account of Trump’s motive. Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein argues Perhaps, Trump bought the that the phrase refers to abuse of presidential pow- actresses’ silence to protect er. Yes, Trump certainly did not abuse his power by his marriage? Perhaps, he paying hush money before he even acquired the had both goals in mind? power. But he also controversially contends that Should we try to identify Congress can impeach a president who attained the his primary motive? presidency through “corruption.” Sunstein quotes Yet many disagree with Sunstein’s standard. founding father George Mason: “Shall the man who Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law professor emeritus, has practiced corruption, and by that procured his emphasizes the word “Crimes” in “high crimes and appointment in the first instance, be suffered to es- Misdemeanors.” He says that a president can be im- cape punishment by repeating his guilt?” peached only for criminal Continued on page 3 The Scars and Stains of Racism The Phone of the Future? Teacher Feature Pg 4 & 6 Pg 18 Pg 14 & 15 Oliver Pitts 2 Centuries of Culture Destroyed Brazil’s National Museum, long a symbol of museum. “The anthropology department went the country’s heritage and a source of pride for its through absurd budget cuts from the federal gov- people, almost completely burned down on Sept. 3. ernment during the past two years. In my class First opened to the public in 1818, the muse- alone, it was around 70 percent.” In fact, “National um had amassed many artifacts, including relics of Geographic” writer Michael Greshko revealed that Brazilian and South American the museum had not received its full annual budget history, as well as rare biological of $128,000 since 2014. And, in the beginning of specimens. But museum officials 2018, the museum had only received $13,000. believe the fire destroyed 90 per- The following Monday, fire protestors, de- cent of what was previously Latin manding to know the exact extent of the damage, America’s largest collection of historical and scien- attempted to storm the museum grounds. Officials tific artifacts. “It’s as if the Metropolitan Museum of from Rio’s Civil Defense department stated, “Our Art burned down,” said David Reich, a geneticist at technicians conducted an inspection inside the Harvard Medical School. building Monday morning and verified that the One of the few relics that survived the infer- building is still at high risk of collapsing.” To ap- no was an iron meteorite discovered by Domingos pease the protestors, police allowed temporary ac- da Motta Bolteho in 1784 called the Bendegó mete- cess to a courtyard adjacent to the museum. or. The largest meteorite ever discovered on Brazili- Following pressure from the museum and an soil, this 5,360-kilogram artifact was often syn- protestors, the government offered the museum onymous with the museum. $10 million as an emergency budget to salvage what While the exact cause of the blaze is un- is left of the building. However, known, most speculate that a lack of funding and much of the damage is seen as negligence from museum administration is to permanent and irreversible. “It's blame. Vice director of the museum Luiz Fernando a national and worldwide trage- Dias Duarte admitted to Brazilian television report- dy. Everybody can see that this is ers that staff members were aware of the dilapi- not a loss for the Brazilian peo- dated state of the museum, including disintegrating ple, but for the whole humanity. It was a predicta- infrastructure and general lack of sanitation, and of ble tragedy, because we've known for a long time many safety concerns present. that Brazilian cultural heritage has no budget,” said “This fire was caused due to several years of Kátia Bogéa, the president of the National Institute neglect from the federal government,” said Caio, an of Historic and Artistic Heritage. anthropology student who frequently studied at the Grace Patterson House of Blue Lights At the beginning of the school year, students This past year, the number of school shoot- started to notice new blue lights on ings has risen dramatically. This has led to the in- the walls of the school building, as creased number of safety measures that our school well as outside, which closely re- has. Last school year, the school district hired semble a fire alarm. These lights armed security guards to try and make students have been installed as an additional and their parents feel more safe and protected in safety measure during lockdowns. school. The blue lights add a new level of safety to In case a student cannot hear the the lockdown procedures. Now, students and staff announcement — whether the hallway is too noisy can be alert and aware of what is going on at all or the class is outside — the lights will alarm them times and won’t have to be worry about being kept to a lockdown in progress. out of the loop. Oliver Pitts Do You Smell That? Nearly a dozen homes exploded in Merri- scary,” said Camille Welkins, who was forced to mack Valley, Massachusetts on Thursday, Sept. 13 move her family into a shelter after her home was after a natural gas leak. Affecting towns such as destroyed. Lawrence, Andover and Others were fearful of remaining in their North Andover, approx- houses after hearing about accounts of fires from imately 80 different neighbors. “I'm afraid to go fires erupted. in my house. You know, you “’We opened the cel- While officials don't know what can hap- lar door. It was total struggled to identify an pen at any minute. I mean, smoke. My husband exact cause of the fires, at least now, it's safer be- had a fire extin- most believe the prob- cause they've shut the gas guisher, went down- lem to be a result of troubles with high-pressure gas off. But that's not going to stairs, put it out. We lines running through the area only 25 miles north tell me, you know, will I be called the fire de- of Boston. Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera blamed the able to live in my house and partment. The whole gas utility company, Columbia Gas, calling it slow to not worry that it's going to thing is scary.’” act and negligent in maintaining gas lines running blow up,” resident Bruce through the area. Rivera told reporters: “My fire Razin told nearby news reporters. and police chiefs both have sought answers that As city officials quickly worked to assist they have not been provided. We still to this date - those affected by the fire, many saw the event as a there is no 100 percent knowledge of what the total chance to bring together the community. City Coun- pressure was that was on those lines.” selor Marc LaPlante told interviewers: “I'm just Those whose houses were destroyed were es- lucky to live in a city like this where we've got peo- pecially distraught after the incident. “We opened ple who pull together. And this neighborhood, this the cellar door. It was total smoke. My husband had part of the city, this entire city has pulled together a fire extinguisher, went downstairs, put it out. We in ways that are frankly I'm not so surprised about.” called the fire department. The whole thing is Impeach Trump over the Cohen Indictment-Continued from page 1 abuses of power. rant impeachment. Dershowitz contends that allowing Congress Still, some might apply the same standard to impeach based on an arbitrary standard violates but understand campaign finance law differently. the president’s civil liberties. He fears that partisans With different understanding of the statutes, some will impeach simply because they don’t like a presi- scholars might advocate impeachment. For exam- dent. Additionally, he says that loose standards un- ple, election law expert Jerry Goldfeder says that dermine separation of powers, empowering con- using campaign funds to pay hush money is illegal.