WASHINGTON - Immediately following President Trump’s announced declaration of a national emergency in order to build a wall across the southern border of the United States without congressional authorization, Free Speech For People issued a statement identifying this as a new ground for impeachment: abusing emergency powers to fund and build a border wall that Congress has explicitly refused to fund.

“The American People and their representatives in Congress have made clear they will not fund Trump’s racist wall,” says Ben Clements, a former federal prosecutor and Board Chair of Free Speech For People. “In a breathtaking and unconstitutional manifestation of his belief that he is above the law, Trump is attempting to circumvent Congressional authority by manufacturing and declaring a phony emergency to raid taxpayer funds. This is the direct result of two years of Congressional failure to hold Trump accountable for his reckless, corrupt, and unconstitutional conduct. It’s past time to begin impeachment hearings.”

“President Trump’s illegal declaration of a national emergency to build a wall on the southern border of the United States that Congress has not authorized is a clear abuse of power,” says John Bonifaz, the Co-Founder and President of Free Speech For People. “It is time – long past time – for Members of the US House of Representatives to carry out their constitutional responsibilities and to start impeachment proceedings now against this president. We cannot continue to have a lawless president in the White House.”

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“Trump's bogus emergency declaration is a naked abuse of power for the sole purpose of seizing money that Congress wouldn’t give to him,” says Ron Fein, Legal Director for Free Speech For People. “By declaring a fake emergency as an end-run to build a wall that Congress has refused to fund, Trump has not only misused his office in this case, but also shown the danger of allowing him to remain in office with the weighty emergency authorities of the presidency. His ongoing threat to constitutional democracy requires immediate impeachment hearings."

Read the detailed case outlining President Trump’s abuse of emergency powers as a new ground for impeachment.

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