Each week brings unprecedented evidence of presidential misconduct sufficient to support an impeachment conviction. This week has been extraordinary for the severity of harms as well as the variety and breadth of maladministration. Let’s get down to it:

First Charge: Endangering national security

• Senator John McCain stated that Trump’s declaration of premature US withdrawal from Syria had emboldened Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to mount a major attack on Syrian civilians, which killed dozens, including children. (Source)
• The president went on to taunt Russia irresponsibly over how our missiles “will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’” and admonish Russia’s leadership that the nation “shouldn’t be friends with a Gas Killing Animal.” (Source)

Second Charge: Undermining the administration of justice, the rule of law, and our system of government

• The same morning he announced his impending strike on Syria, the president announced how “very calm and calculated” he is. He also declared he had engaged in “No Collusion or Obstruction,” and then added, “(other than I fight back).” (Source)
• The president reacted poorly to news that a warrant had been served on his counsel. “White House advisers were particularly alarmed by the president’s tirade in front of reporters on Monday,” the New York Times reported. Trump decried the service of the warrant and subsequent seizure of evidence as “an attack on our country.” The Times pointed out that the President had used “far angrier terms than he has ever referred to the Russian assault on the 2016 election.” (Source)
• President Trump denounced the Mueller investigation as a “disgrace.” He claimed “Attorney-client privilege is dead!” Multiple news outlets and attorneys explained that there is a well-known and uncontroversial “crime-fraud exception” to attorney-client privilege, with procedures to safeguard and test whether it applies.. (Source, source)
• The New York Times’ Frank Bruni pointed to the harm of the president “telling us, once again, not to trust out government.” (Source)

Third Charge: Embracing and ratifying the incompetence and corruption of Executive Branch officials he has negligently hired or retained, as he continues to oppress the media

• The president used his massive platform to ratify EPA chief Scott Pruitt’s misconduct, praising him for “doing a great job,” while in the same tweet attacking our free press, writing that “so much of the media is dishonest and corrupt!” (Source)
• Pruitt hired his friend Albert Kelly—a donor, lender, and crook with no experience in environmental issues—for Superfund oversight. Kelly has been banned for life by the FDIC for his banking abuses; he was dismissed from his family banking business, as well. (Source)
• The president later reiterated his complete support for Pruitt’s corrupt security spending, untruthfully asserted Pruitt had paid “about market rate” for the DC condo he has been renting from a lobbyist, and falsely declared the EPA had achieved “Record clean Air and Water.” The media disproved Pruitt’s claimed justifications for the security expenses, finding no evidence of the threats against his safety and showing that, when he’d footed the bill, Pruitt had chosen to fly coach. (Source, source)
• The White House press secretary essentially admitted that the president’s agenda trumps the need for ethical government; Pruitt’s success in achieving items on the president’s agenda—including the rollback of environmental regulations—counterbalanced any misuse of public money: “[POTUS] likes the work product.” (Source)
• The President’s defense of his corrupt EPA chief was rendered further unjustified with a letter from the acting director of the Office of Government Ethics who advised the EPA: “The success of our government depends on maintaining the trust of the people we serve. The American public needs to have confidence that ethics violations, as well as the appearance of ethics violations, are investigated and appropriately addressed.” Mr. Pruitt’s conduct was clearly called into question on multiple issues, including “concerns about whether the administrator is using his public office for personal gain in violation of ethics rules.” Most disturbing to the ethics chief were reports that agency staff may have been punished after raising concerns about Mr. Pruitt’s actions. The Chief stated, “If true, it is hard to imagine any action that could more effectively undermine an agency’s integrity than punishing or marginalizing employees who strive to ensure compliance with the laws and regulations that safeguard that integrity.” (Source)
• The media provided accounts of corruption within the president’s family, including Trump’s daughter and advisor Ivanka benefitting from her father’s trade war with exemptions from tariffs for her clothing line, recalling Ivanka’s dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Trump family’s resort the same day China approved three new trademarks for Ivanka’s company. (Source)
• The Miami New Times provided six clear examples of special interests seeking or receiving benefits that also benefited the president’s personal financial interests at his Doral Resort. (Source)
• The Trump Organization (which receives its notices at the White House, according to the US Embassy) sought help from the president of Panama in a business dispute. (Source)

Fourth Charge: By lying, undermining confidence in our electoral system, which is already under Russian assault and will be tested in 2020.

• The president “feels” a lie: at a press conference, the White House press secretary stated the president “still strongly feels that there was a large amount of voter fraud,” incorrectly blaming the absence of any evidence (regarding debunked and untrue claims, including assertions that millions and millions of people voting many times each) on states’ lack of cooperation with his voter fraud commission. (Source, source)

Fifth Charge: Promiting racial hatred and oppression via lies

• The president indulged a “week-long obsession” with the “caravan” of migrants heading from Central America into Mexico, as if invasion were imminent, claiming, “Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW.” He ordered National Guard to create the appearance of great risk, and rekindled earlier, unsubstantiated charges of rapes associated with immigrants. The Wall Street Journal opined, “President Trump can’t seem to decide whether his border-control plan is a success or an imminent national crisis,” urging the President to make a deal on immigration legislation before concluding. “Then he wouldn’t have to pull stunts like hyping a band of poor migrants as an invading army.” (Source, source)

In little over a year in office, President Trump’s impeachable maladministration and misconduct dwarf  any of the previous nineteen US impeachment cases in variety, breadth, and the existential threat to our country.