Has Trump honoured his oath of the office?

By commuting the prison sentence of Roger Stone, President Donald Trump has made his contempt for the rule of law plain for all to see. Clemency for a crony convicted of interfering with an investigation of presidential malfeasance is a flagrant abuse of power. President Richard Nixon wasn’t willing to pardon the Watergate criminals who broke into Democratic Party offices in the run-up to the 1972 presidential campaign because he knew how bad it would look; the evidence that Nixon hinted at clemency for his convicted associates was part of the reason he was eventually forced to resign or face certain impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction and removal by the Senate.
Stone, Trump’s friend and a longtime Republican political operative, was sentenced to more than three years in prison for lying to congressional investigators and witness tampering in matters related to inquiries about Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. The investigation by Robert Mueller, the special counsel who conducted the probe of Russia’s activities, concluded not only that Stone had behaved improperly, but that Trump’s public actions praising him were part of what amounted to obstruction of justice. The decision to commute Stone’s sentence comes after other presidential actions taken after the impeachment acquittal by the Senate that include the firing of several inspectors general, retaliation against officials who testified truthfully to Congress, and of course Trump’s continuing refusal to submit to normal oversight by Congress. All were abuses of presidential power, exactly what the impeachment and removal power of Congress is designed for.
No more investigations are needed to establish that fact. Trump simply has given up on even the pretense of respecting the rule of law and honouring his oath of office. Rather than follow his oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Trump is trampling on that document and all it means. The only question is what to do about it.
The oddity of the situation is that the Stone clemency gives them a last chance that they don’t deserve. At this late date, with people starting to vote in the 2020 election in only a couple of months, the incentives for the party to stand behind their leader are extremely strong. Harsh criticism of a president from highly visible members of his own party would make the president less popular, and given high levels of partisan polarisation, that would hurt House and Senate candidates given that ticket-splitting is rare. So however outlandish Trump’s words and deeds, whether he’s suggesting that it might be a good idea for people to inject bleach to cure a coronavirus infection, or attacking a popular Black Nascar driver who found a noose being used as a garage pull, or excusing any number of corrupt actions taken on his behalf, it’s hard for them to criticise the top of their ticket.
But if Republicans wanted an escape hatch — and they should, given how he’s dragging down the party and is apparently unable to do much these days other than feel sorry for himself — now they have one. As we saw during the winter, there’s no strict protocol for impeachment, meaning that if both parties are on board, it could happen very quickly. Indeed, if Republican and Democratic leaders wanted to cooperate, they could do the whole thing in a week or two. Republicans would of course be stuck with Trump attempting to avenge himself through November, but if they stuck together, and if Republican-aligned media backed them, a twice-impeached and once-removed president with a Twitter account and scant institutional support might turn out to be a mild nuisance at most.

—Bloomberg