Impeach or imprison?

 A request for signatures on a petition to impeach Trump came up tonight. Apparently whoever is doing it has two million signatures already. The problem is, no matter how many signatures they get, impeachment is unlikely in the current atmosphere. In order to impeach a president, a majority of the House of Representatives must vote for the charges proposed. If that happens, the president is then tried in the Senate where a two-thirds majority is needed to convict. As long as Republicans control Congress that seems like a pipe dream.

To my mind what seems better is a path through the criminal and if not that the civil courts. Robert Mueller's investigation could lead to that as his investigators get closer and closer to the president.

What I would like to see and what would be more possible is indictments coming out of the investigation leading to criminal charges to be tried in a state court. The Southern District of New York (which includes New York City) where the US Attorney there is already involved sounds like a good bet. Why a state court? Because a president cannot pardon anyone for conviction in state courts, only federal courts. One can hope that would lead to a conviction and prison time. At that point Congress could not get away with not impeaching.

Leaving it all in the political spectrum rather than the legal one makes room for all kinds of manipulation.

I am sure this is an oversimplification of the process, but to me it seems a more likely course to take if something needs to be done in the next year. The trick is not to be impatient. Mueller has been described as a methodical investigator and the time this is taking to me means he is being very careful and making sure everything it discovers and develops is solid evidence and it takes that to make a complicated case like this one stick.

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So it's fun to carry impeachment signs and demonstrate and feel like we are contributing, but the eventual outcome is going to be decided in the trenches of the legal system and let's hope it happens in time to prevent Trump and his gangsters from destroying the Republic.
#fakenews It's so easy anybody can do it