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Item 172
in a list of 172
Article II of the Constitution grants Congress the power to impeach
“the president, the vice president and all civil officers of the United
States.” The phrase “civil officers” includes the members of the
cabinet (one of whom, Secretary of War William Belknap, was impeached
in 1876).
*snip*
A cabinet officer, like a judge or a president, may be impeached only
for commission of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” But as the Nixon and
Clinton impeachment debates reminded us, that constitutional phrase
embraces not only indictable crimes but “conduct ... grossly
incompatible with the office held and subversive of that office and of
our constitutional system of government.”
*snip*
An attorney general called before Congress to discuss the workings of
the Justice Department can claim the protection of “executive
privilege” and, if challenged, can defend the (doubtful) legitimacy of
such a claim in the courts. But having elected to testify, he
has no right to lie, either by affirmatively misrepresenting facts or
by falsely claiming not to remember events.
*snip*
The real question is whether Republicans and
Democrats are prepared to defend the constitutional authority of
Congress against the implicit claim of an administration that it can do
what it pleases and, when called to account, send an attorney general
of the United States to Capitol Hill to commit amnesia on its behalf.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com
...
Of
course, the NYT is the paper of record.
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