By Michael Hernandez
The President has constitutional legal authority to launch investigations despite the false accusations from Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives who are weaponizing the U.S. Constitution and attempting to place the Legislative Branch over the Executive Branch.
Their impeachment inquiry based on a July 25th phone call between Trump and Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky is targeting a reference made about Hunter Biden and the role his father, Vice President Joe Biden played during a Ukranian investigation. (Editor’s Note: Former Vice President Joe Biden bragged how U.S. support for Ukraine would be stopped if a prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden was not fired.)
Interesting enough, the U.S. and Ukraine have a Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance that was ironically signed by then President Bill Clinton and then ratified by the U.S. Senate on Oct. 18, 2000.
The purpose of the U.S./Ukraine treaty is to “counter criminal activities more effectively.” The treaty was designed to provide for a “broad range of cooperation in criminal matters. Mutual assistance available under the Treaty includes: taking of testimony or statements of person; providing documents, records, and articles of evidence; serving documents; location or identifying persons; transferring persons in custody for testimony or other purposes; assisting in proceedings related to restraint, confiscation, forfeiture of assets, restitution, and collection of fines; and any other form of assistance not prohibited by the laws of the requested state.
Are the Democrats saying that the President cannot enforce a U.S./Ukraine treaty that was signed by a Democrat?
President Trump’s phone conversation is within his role to pursue “evidence of criminal activity engaged in by U.S. actors that triggered the 2016 Russian collusion narrative,” according to both American Center for Law and Justice Senior Counsel Jay Sekulow and Director of Policy, Professor Harry Hutchison.
“The Treaty does not describe and does not purport to describe the limites of a President’s constitutional authority. It neither constrains nor diminishes a President’s Article II authority to enforce the laws of the United States, nor could it.”
The United States also has a similar treaty with Australia—the other nation being referenced by Trump critics—that was signed in 1999.
Citizens need to understand how the U.S. Constitution outlines the powers of Congress (Article I), the Presidency (Article II) and the Courts (Article III). Almost 200 Ventura County residents are learning more at a Constitution Alive! video course each Thursday evening at 6:45 p.m. featuring Rick Green and historian David Barton (founder of Wall Builders in 2001) at Godspeak Calvary Chapel, Chapel, 320 Via Las Brisas Road, Newbury Park, CA 91320.
I recommend “The Constitution Made Easy: A Tea Partier’s Guide” (Michael K. Holler, March, 2012) to assist your learning.
(Editor’s Note: 2020 Election Countdown is a political column focusing on both issues and candidates running for office. The goal is to inform voters, inspire political activism, as well as engage “We the People” into the public square.)
Michael Hernandez, Co-Founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service; editor of the History Makers Report and founder of History Makers International—a community nonprofit serving youth and families in Ventura County, is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. He has worked 25 years as a middle school teacher in Monrovia and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted by email at [email protected].
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