A conservative lawyer issued a blistering takedown of President Donald Trump’s attempt to prosecute six Democratic members of Congress.
Andrew McCarthy, a Fox News legal analyst and National Review editor, said an effort by the Justice Department to criminally charge the Democrats made another Trump impeachment more likely.
Trump was impeached twice during his first term in office. In each case, he was acquitted on all counts by the Senate.
“The president will be impeached promptly if Democrats retake control of the House after the November midterms, an outcome his abuses of power have also made highly likely,” McCarthy wrote in a column published in the National Review Wednesday.
“That will be the legacy of yesterday’s reported failed attempt by the Trump Justice Department to criminally charge the ‘Seditious Six,’ as the Democrats in question were labeled by Trump supporters.”
McCarthy personally characterized Trump’s attacks on the six Democrats as “intolerable” and “impeachable.” He wrote that there was “no plausible justification for the proposed indictment” against Sens. Mark Kelly (Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (Mich.) and Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.), Maggie Goodlander (N.H.), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.) and Chris Deluzio (Pa.).
Those Democrats were targeted by Trump last year after they posted a joint video reminding active-duty members of the military and intelligence community of their duty to refuse unlawful orders. Trump called for the Democrats to face arrest, posting on Truth Social that their message amounted to “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors argued to a Washington grand jury that the Democratic lawmakers had violated a federal statute prohibiting interference with the loyalty, morale or discipline of the U.S. armed forces.
The grand jury declined to approve the charges sought by U.S. attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro’s office.
McCarthy wrote that the Democrats had committed “no crime at all.” He went on to condemn Trump for using the criminal justice system to target political rivals.
“More even than capricious tariffs, the president’s signature policy is bullying lawfare — the tin-pot dictator-style expliitation of law-enforcement power to punish political enemies and scapegoats and to settle old scores,” McCarthy wrote.
Democrats in Congress have also spoken out in defense of their colleagues, sounding the same alarms as McCarthy.
Speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said Trump’s use of the DOJ to target lawmakers could threaten the rule of law.
“The fact that they failed to incarcerate a United States senator should not obviate our outrage. They tried to incarcerate two of us,” Schatz said. “I am not entirely sure the United States Senate can survive this if we do not have Republicans standing up.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.