Menendez and Scads of Republicans Should be Ousted Now
Why the presumption of innocence doctrine is inapplicable, and ouster should not be contingent on a criminal conviction
By
David Gottfried
Bob Menendez, the senior senator from New Jersey, has been indicted on charges pertaining to bribery. This isn’t garden variety bribery. The bribery includes taking money from the government of Egypt to do the bidding of Egypt, not the United States. As such, Menendez may also be guilty of treason.
I have heard quite a few people say that he is “innocent until proven guilty.” Sure, he cannot suffer a criminal conviction and suffer criminal penalties such as jail until he is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. However, being ejected from the Senate is not as Draconian a penalty as going to jail. One has a right to be free of jail time; One has no right to sit in the United States Senate, the latter is a privilege.
Our national security could be endangered while we wait for a jury to find that he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Our national security could be endangered because he has been, as the New York Times puts it, in “Egypt’s pocket.” Despite Egypt’s horrendous human rights record, Menendez has consistently used his significant Senatorial power (He is the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee) to give Egypt close to 2 billion dollars per year in Foreign aid (This was America’s bribe to Egypt, made during the Carter administration, to induce Egypt to stop calling for the demolition of the State of Israel) and advanced weapons systems that, according to the NY Times, Egypt has no need for as its only military threats are quasi military threats from bands of terrorists.
Accordingly, he should resign now, even though he has not yet been convicted by a jury of the criminal charges. Getting thrown out of the Senate is no picnic, but it is a far less onerous fate that going to jail and the protections granted to criminal defendants are not applicable.
Also, the stiff evidentiary standard necessary for a criminal conviction – proof beyond a reasonable doubt – should not be used in determining whether someone should be removed from Congress. If there is a real risk that someone might use his influence to aid a foreign power, instead of the U.S., he has betrayed his trust and should go and the more exacting standard of criminal trials should not be imposed.
Since Menendez is guilty of what we may call turbo-charged corruption, many Republicans, also guilty of turbo-charged corruption, also must go – and their expulsion from office should not be contingent on a criminal conviction.
Menendez is guilty of what I would call turbo-charged corruption because he did not only take a bribe. He took a bribe from a foreign power to help a foreign power, not the United States.
Just as Menendez has been Egypt’s waterboy, Trump, and Republican confederates of Trump, were working for Russia.
It has already been established that:
a) Trump’s first national security advisor, Mr. Flynn; Trump’s campaign manager, Mr. Paul Manaforte; and other key allies of Trump obtained sizable amounts of money from the Russian government;
b) Various associates of Mr. Trump lied to the FBI by falsely denying that they had spoken to high-ranking Russian officials;
c) Russia sent money to Trump, laundered by Deutschebank, because many conventional American lenders did not want to lend money to Trump because of his propensity to avoid his depts by directing corporations, under his control, to declare bankruptcy;
d) In a joint press conference with Putin, Trump said that he disbelieved the reports of American intelligence agencies and experts, which said that he collaborated with Russia in subverting the 2016 election, and instead believed the reports of Russian intelligence which exonerated Russia and Trump of electoral subversion.
e) Russians, posing as African Americans, posted advertisements on social media which attacked Hillary Clinton, and these advertisements induced many reliably Democratic black voters to sit-out the 2016 election.
f) Trump, in contravention of U.S. foreign policy, told Ukraine that we would not give them assistance unless they dug up dirt on Hunter and Joe Biden.
Being President is a privilege, not a right. Accordingly, Trump should have forfeited his office even if no one established that he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Furthermore, many Republican congressmen and Senators should have called upon Trump to resign. Since we know that a sizable amount of evidence shows that Trump was in many respects nothing but a Russian agent (according to US law, if one takes money from a foreign government, one is that government’s agent and if the amount of money taken is in excess of a certain sum --- which I don’t off hand know – one must register as a foreign agent or be in violation of the law), I am sure that Republican legislators, privy to much more dirt than we commoners could ever hope to know, have mountains of evidence proving that Trump was a Russian agent.
Also, the New York Times reported, several years ago, that several Republican Congressman were overheard stating that they knew that Trump was taking money from Russia and also knew that they had to keep this material secret. Of course, if they felt they had to keep this damning information secret, they were fully intent on behaving like criminals as it is nothing short of grotesque for a congressman to facilitate a President’s commission of a crime.
Republicans Legislators who aided and abetted the insurrection, and may try to provoke a second insurrection, have no business being in Congress
Those Republican legislators who were apologists for the insurrection of January 6 should also be unceremoniously booted out of the Senate. For example, one Senator or Congressman had the gall and effrontery to allege that the insurrectionists behaved like ordinary tourists. Right. Somone who shatters glass windows, maims police officers and calls for the assassination of Mike Pence is akin to an ordinary tourist. Where do these bastards get the gumption to lie with such unrestrained extravagance. Their lies are as gargantuan and deadly as the lies of an Adolf Hitler, who burned the Reichstag down and then blamed the communists for the deed.
Since their lies regarding January 6 are supportive of a violent overthrow of the government, these serial prevaricators of the Republican Party are, perhaps, subject to dismissal pursuant to the 14th amendment to the constitution which provides that insurrectionists are not to hold public office.
The Exigency Exception Mandates the Immediate Ouster of Menendez and Republican Reprobates
Menendez and the aforementioned Republicans should also be thrown out now, without further ado, pursuant to a doctrine which is analogous to the exigency exception in searches and seizures.
The police cannot search your home without a search warrant. However, this doctrine is far from iron-clad. If the police believe that an emergency warrants an immediate search and seizure, they need not apply for, and wait for, a judicial warrant.
Similarly, when an office holder betrays his public trust by working for a foreign government, instead of the United States, we the people are entitled to relief on an accelerated basis. The risk that an office holder may sell out America in favor of his alien benefactor should supersede the protections of criminal law which, in any case, are not applicable because being thrown out of office isn’t akin to going to jail.
Accordingly, throw the moral dwarfs out now.