Will Newton Vote On Whether To Call For Trump Impeachment Investigation?

NEWTON, MA — A couple of weeks ago Newton City Hall filled with residents taking turns weighing in on whether the city should join the growing movement of cities and towns asking the House to launch an investigation into whether Trump has violated the Constitution. Monday night the City Council votes on whether to give the thumbs up to the formal resolution before them to do just that.

Newton is not alone here, 10 municipalities —from Alameda in California to Brookline — have passed similar resolutions. Supporters of the resolutions say President Donald Trump is violating the Constitution by profiting from business from foreign governments, a violation of the Emoluments clause. Five of the municipalities that have passed resolutions have been in Massachusetts.

"Newton, we hope, will be the sixth," said Newton resident Ben Clements, who is chairman of the board of Free Speech For People and the main man behind Newton's resolution.

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He filed a citizens petition, which required a minimum of 50 signatures to bring it before City Council back in March. Under the council's charter they had three months to act on it he said. People on both sides of the issue came out to speak about it at the first public hearing June 7 at City Hall. The Programs and Services Committee (six of the eight members were present) voted recommend the resolution to the full council on June 19.

"Our hope is that they will vote and approve it by as wide a margin as possible,” said Clements.

Although no municipality has the authority to impeach a president, the more municipalities that call upon the House to begin such a process, the more pressure (and support) the House has to actually do such a thing.

"It’s more than symbolic in that there is a growing growing movement in the country to see the president impeached or at a minimum see an impeachment investigation begin in the House," said Clements.

Clements said his organization was the first to start litigation to such an effect.

In the fall, the organization was keeping an eye on how the President elect Trump would respond to the advice that was given from government ethics experts telling him to divest his interest in the Trump organization or he would be in violation from the moment he was sworn in, said Clements.

It was the president's press conference where he offered a solution to turn over the day to day management but without giving up ownership interests at all that was the last straw for him he said.

"He set up the Donald Trump revocable trust to hold the interests, but the details haven’t been made fully public. He still owns it and has full control of it. He can draw funds out of the trust anytime," said Clements. "When we saw that he was going to do nothing, nothing to divest... That’s when we decided to launch."

The relative part of the clause says that without the Consent of the Congress, the president can't accept benefits of any kind from foreign entities.

"There is a real desire among the people throughout the country to see this happen and one of the ways that people can make their voices heard is through their local government."

Clements and Free Speech For the People have been encouraging just that.

"The more cities and towns that do this the more members of congress realize they have to step up and do their job," he said.

That approach may just be working. Until last week very few leaders in Washington were calling for such investigations.

Then, on June 14 almost 200 Democrats in Congress said they were going to bring a lawsuit against Trump. This came two days after the attorneys general for Maryland and the District of Columbia announced they filed suit against Trump over the conflict between his family business interests and his constitutional oath to put the country first.

"Newton along with the 10 cities and towns can play a galvanizing role," said Clements. "We think it’s great that Massachusetts has been a leader in this movement. But obviously we’d love to see citizens from cities and towns from other states take up the mantle."

What is the Emolument clause?

"No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."
ARTICLE I, SECTION 9, CLAUSE 8

Check out what the Heritage Foundation, a right wing think tank has to say about it.

Photo of Newton City Hall by Jenna Fisher