• SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    No. It’s delusions.

    “High crimes and misdemeanors” doesn’t mean “serious crimes.” It doesn’t mean felonies. It’s the political equivalent of what we call “Conduct Unbecoming an Officer.” That may be a literal crime, of course, like the multiple Hatch Act violations during the Trump administration. It could be the appearance of accepting bribes from foreign officials when they rent your real estate at exorbitant prices. It could be trying to overthrow an election. It could be strong-arming a foreign leader to manufacture dirt on your political opponent. There’s a lot of latitude there.

    High crimes means that a public official, in their capacity as a public official, betrayed the public trust.

    “High,” in the legal and common vocabulary of the 17th and 18th centuries of “high crimes,” is the activity by or against those who have special duties acquired by taking an oath of office that is not shared with ordinary persons. A high crime can be done only by someone in a unique position of authority, which is political, who does things to circumvent justice. The phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors,” used together, was a common phrase when the U.S. Constitution was written and did not require any stringent or demanding criteria for determining guilt but meant the opposite. The phrase was historically used to cover an extensive range of crimes.

    What they’re saying is that they have bupkis. Zilch. Nada.