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Amherst lawyer and the co-founder and president of Free Speech For People is hoping to see impeachment proceedings begin against Donald Trump.

(Diane Lederman/The Republican)

AMHERST -- John Bonifaz is worried that President Donald Trump's business interests in foreign countries threaten America.

"I'm worried every day," the co-founder and president of Free Speech For People said in an interview Tuesday. Bonifaz says the president has an interest in 111 businesses operating in 18 foreign countries.

His organization, along with RootsAction.org, has initiated an impeachment campaign across the country. And from Massachusetts to California, a smattering of voters have voiced support for beginning impeachment proceedings, with more communities preparing to take votes. (Free Speech For People "works to renew our democracy and our United States Constitution for we the people, not big money and corporate interests," according to its website. RootsAction is "an online initiative dedicated to galvanizing people who are committed to economic fairness, equal rights, civil liberties, environmental protection -- and defunding endless wars," according to its website.)

In the Bay State, Town Meeting voters in Leverett and Pelham over the past two weeks have called for the congressional impeachment process to begin. Amherst Town Meeting votes Wednesday. Brookline and Newton also will be taking up the issue at Town Meeting, Bonifaz said.

The Los Angeles City Council took a similar vote on Friday and unanimously recommended investigating Trump for impeachable offenses.

Bonifaz said that the president through his business dealings violates the U.S. Constitution's foreign and domestic Emoluments Clause, and other federal law. (The Emoluments Clause in Article I of the Constitution, states: "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.")

"(Trump cares more) about his business interests than his interests in the United States," Bonifaz said. "This is not a debate. He is enriching himself.

"(This is) a dangerous moment in American history," he said.

Trump calling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a referendum greatly expanding that president's powers was concerning, Bonifaz said. Election observers declared the vote unfair, according to the Washington Post.

Trump has financial connections to Turkey -- a hotel and office tower complex, Bonifaz said.

According to the Washington Post:

"Trump's company has been paid up to $10 million by the tower's developers since 2014 to affix the Trump name atop the luxury complex, whose owner, one of Turkey's biggest oil and media conglomerates, has become an influential megaphone for the country's increasingly repressive regime."

Bonifaz said his campaign is nonpartisan. He believes that as more people understand the campaign, it will draw "people from around the political spectrum."

He knows he gets personally attacked for his crusade. Some have called what he's doing just sour grapes because Democrat Hillary Clinton lost the election to Trump.

Of his critics, he said, "I don't think they are looking at the questions we're raising, how well-documented (the violations are)," he said.

Bonifaz has lived in Amherst for 10 years and has served as the executive director and then general counsel of the National Voting Rights Institute, an organization he founded in 1994. In 2006, he ran unsuccessfully for secretary of the commonwealth in a Democratic primary that incumbent Bill Gavin won.

A public interest lawyer who graduated from Harvard School of Law, Bonifaz said he has always focused on "strengthening democracy and fighting for human rights." His father, Cristobel Bonifaz, initiated a lawsuit against Texaco for alleged environmental damage in Ecuador, a case on which the younger Bonifaz worked as well.

Bonifaz said a member of Congress needs to initiate impeachment proceedings. So far, he has not found one to do so. He said he's been told impeachment is premature and would polarize Washington.

"This is a constitutional crisis. It is far from being premature," Bonifaz said.

He said he is disappointed that U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Worcester, who represents Amherst, hasn't taken on the issue.

McGovern, according to a statement from his office, said the he is

"deeply concerned about the growing list of conflicts of interest between the Trump White House and Trump businesses as well as the long list of ties between President Trump and his aides and Russian interference in the 2016 election.

"Congressman McGovern has been one of the most vocal opponents of the radical agenda led by President Trump and will continue to hold him accountable," the statement continues.

"Congressman McGovern is actively pushing for a full investigation into these conflicts of interest and ties to Russia to ensure that Americans get the truth. That is the first step to determine if any laws have been broken and if there are grounds for impeachment."

Bonifaz said every community vote is imperative to show Congress there's support for his impeachment campaign, as is an online impeachment petition, which so far has generated nearly 950,000 signatures.

He said he wants to bring the campaign out of the so-called "blue coasts" of the country and will be speaking in St. Petersburg, Florida, next month.

"I think we're on the right side of history," he said.