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On Beveridge column on stopping Trump

June 26, 2017

Mr. Beveridge made many mistakes in his June 20 essay that said it is highly unlikely that President Trump would be impeached. Beveridge said that the possibility of a Trump impeachment began with the FBI investigation of Michael Flynn and Trump's attempt to stop that investigation.

Beveridge said that Michael Flynn talked with Sergei Kislyak but this was not a crime. Beveridge said that Flynn had business contacts with Russians but that was not a crime either. I submit that it cannot be determined, now, from what Beveridge said or from the vast relevant media discussion whether a crime was committed. We would need complete transcripts of many testimonies and much interpretation of those testimonies.

Beveridge then said that since "so far there is no evidence [after a year of investigation]...." and that maybe this suggests that evidence does not exist. I submit that the investigation is very far from over, and may take much more time and many books will be published before any picture about those people will emerge.

Beveridge said that there is no "underlying [Trump ] crime" (like the Watergate break-in was for Nixon) and, thus, there is no more there than smoke.
Beveridge somehow forgot about Trump's tax problems. First, unlike all other candidates, Trump has refused to release his tax returns. Second, he says he is being audited by the IRS. Both of these facts suggest that there are details that Trump would like to hide and that makes me even more curious about his tax compliance which could have a criminal element.

Another detail ignored by Beveridge is the fact that Trump settled out of court a class-action fraud lawsuit over Trump University. If the plaintiffs had that good of a case against Trump then it suggests to me that Trump must have intentionally, or at least very carelessly, designed his university to deliver a product not fairly worth what students were paying. It is also a fact (see references on the internet) that Trump has been involved, about equally as defendant as plaintiff, in about 3,500 lawsuits during his business career.

Surely people should wonder about such a consistent pattern of serious unhappiness in outcomes of past business dealings with Trump. There has been extensive commentary about Trump's noncompliance with the emoluments clause in the Constitution. Investigation in all of these problem areas could lead to judicial findings of crimes. Smoke does not come out of thin air.

I will not make any predictions about Trump’s tenure in the White House, but Trump is not very popular internationally, and national polls show he is also not popular here. Recent Wall Street Journal articles report that Mexico has recently begun to reduce the purchase of agricultural products from us and is pivoting to South America. Other articles report that after Trump's retreat from the Paris climate agreement, Europe is now pivoting to China.

Trump has made many enemies who may be waiting for the right time for payback, and even a number of respectable Republicans have come out against him. Our economy is at a peak right now and after economic peaks there come economic recessions. Also there is a lot of unresolved public sentiment about healthcare. And several international hot spots are now at the boiling point.

So, unlike Beveridge, I would not be surprised if Trump's storms get worse. It is too early to say how his tenure in the White House will turn out.

Arthur E. Sowers
Harbeson

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