Impeaching Trump is now being openly discussed as a real possibility

President Trump is having a hard week
(Image credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

A growing handful of Democratic lawmakers have been suggesting it may be time to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump, especially after he appears to have at least tiptoed up to obstructing justice by allegedly ordering FBI Director James Comey to drop an investigation into Michael Flynn, a day after he fired Flynn as national security adviser. Lawyers don't agree if Trump's purported comments to Comey amount to obstruction of justice, the main charge in both the Nixon and Clinton impeachment cases. But they do agree that impeachment is the only punishment Trump would face.

Impeachment proceedings are still a long shot, not least because they would have to start with House Republicans, and no Republican in Congress is explicitly using the i-word yet. But they are starting to talk subpoenas and making Watergate comparisons, and people who aren't congressional Democrats are beginning to talk impeaching Trump — an idea the public is apparently warming up to. On Tuesday evening, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin reacted to the report that Trump asked Comey to stand down with "three words: obstruction of justice."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.