Copyright ©2019 Sarah Becker Written by ©2019 Sarah Becker Executive Privilege and Impeachment “The President of the United States is impeachable at any time during his continuance in office,” James Madison wrote (Federalist Paper No. 39). The 2019 calendar is turning and still the country contemplates President Donald Trump’s (R-NY/FL) conduct in office. “If impeached, tried, and, upon conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors, [the President will be] removed from office; and would afterwards be liable to prosecution and punishment in the ordinary course of law.” Last October the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats especially voted to further its impeachment inquiry. “The legislative, executive, and judiciary departments ought to be separate and distinct,” Alexander Hamilton concluded. “Power being almost always the rival of power, the general government will at all times stand ready to check the usurpations….” Power: the ability or capacity to perform effectively; to control. President Donald Trump and, in turn, the Executive branch have repeatedly refused to respond to Congressional subpoenas; requests for information related to the un-redacted Robert Mueller report, citizenship and the 2020 census, Ukraine and an acknowledged Executive quid pro quo. Quid pro quo: thing given as compensation; return made for a gift or favor. Trump’s failure to reply to the latter may result in obstruction of Congress charges. Executive privilege is an implied power, “derived from the concept of ‘process privilege.’” It allows the president and other high officials of the Executive branch to keep “sensitive” communications private should the disclosure of such prove disruptive to the Executive branch. Executive privilege was not legally explained until 1974—United States v. Richard M. Nixon—and mostly applies to matters of foreign policy, national security, and or national defense. President George Washington first exerted his Executive prerogative in 1795. President…
In February 1790 Benjamin Franklin, on behalf of Pennsylvania’s anti-slavery society, petitioned Congress to abolish slavery; “to devise means for removing the Inconsistency from the Character of the American People.” The petition triggered a national debate and slave owners were displeased. President Washington’s cabinet—which included Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, a Virginia Democratic-Republican, and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, a New York Federalist—divided politically. The slavery debate coupled with Hamilton’s post-Revolutionary War debt remedies confirmed the conundrum. “That I have utterly, in my private conversations, disapproved of the system of the Secretary of the treasury, I acknowledge [sic] & avow: and this was not merely a speculative difference,” Jefferson wrote on September 9, 1792. The Secretaries squabble was fueled by partiality; Jeffersonian newspaper editor Jon Freneau and a partisan press. President Washington was hopeful “some line could be marked out by which both [men] could walk.” But he could not resolve their disputes. “I do not require the evidence of the [enclosed] extracts to convince me of your attachment to the Constitution….,” Washington wrote Jefferson on October 18, 1792. “But I regret—deeply regret—the difference in opinions which have arisen, and divided you and another principal Officer of the Government….” Virginia Congressman James Madison and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, fearing Hamilton’s influence, “launched an orchestrated attack on the [Washington] administration.” Jefferson, also a former Minister to France and then retired, opposed not only Hamilton’s handling of the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion but also Envoy Extraordinary and US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay’s November 1794 commercial treaty with Great Britain. The Treaty, its publicly debated pros and cons marked the organizational beginning of America’s two-party system. The pro-Jefferson newspaper “Aurora joined the chorus of criticism, going so far as to suggest that Jay had been chosen because sending the chief…