Harvard Law Prof: Trump Could Be Impeached for Quoting Pastor’s Warning About Civil War

Harvard Law professor John Coates claimed Monday that President Donald Trump’s tweet quoting a pastor’s warning on “civil war” could justify impeachment.

“This tweet is itself an independent basis for impeachment – a sitting president threatening civil war if Congress exercises its constitutionally authorized power,” Coasts wrote on Twitter.
The Harvard Law professor’s claim came in response to President Trump’s Sunday tweet in which he quoted Pastor Robert Jeffress on Fox & Friends. 

This tweet is itself an independent basis for impeachment – a sitting president threatening civil war if Congress exercises its constitutionally authorized power. https://t.co/JL9XzClGXf

— John Coates⚽️ (@jciv) September 30, 2019

“If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal,” Jeffress warned of impeachment.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced a formal impeachment probe into President Trump last week after a partisan CIA officer came forward with a so-called “whistleblower” complaint alleging President Trump pressured the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a July 25th to investigate the business dealings of Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President and 2020 White House candidate Joe Biden. The allegation — based on second-hand information, which amounts to hearsay — was forcefully denied by President Trump and Zelensky at the United Nations last week.

“We had I think good phone call. It was normal. We spoke about many things, and I — so I think and you read it that nobody pushed me,” the Ukraine leader said.

The White House has since released a transcript of the Trump-Zelensky call, confirming the foreign leaders’ affirmations that no pressure was applied to probe the Biden family.

Nonetheless, Democrats are driving the proceedings toward what some hope is a vote to impeach, or indict, President Trump by year’s end, and they have launched a coordinated political, messaging and polling strategy aimed at keeping any backlash in closely divided districts from toppling their House majority.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is expected to issue new subpoenas, depose witnesses and perhaps hold a hearing as soon as this week. He said on Sunday that the panel would hear from the still-secret whistleblower “very soon,” but that no date had been set and other details remained to be worked out.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.