The Washington Post reports that the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan experienced an uptick in revenue in the first part of 2018, as a result of a last-minute visit to New York by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. While the royal family did not stay at the hotel, the general manager reports that they “were able to accommodate many of the accompanying travelers.”

Other Trump-owned properties have benefited similarly from business by foreign officials. For example, the Embassy of Kuwait held its National Day celebration twice at Trump’s hotel in downtown Washington, and this year the Embassy of the Philippines held its Philippine independence day party in the Trump hotel’s ballroom.

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In a recent op-ed for the Texas Tribune, Texas Republican State Representative, Jason Villalba called for the impeachment of Donald Trump.

Representative Villaba criticized Trump for his policies and behaviors, writing:

Since Donald J. Trump has been president, he alone has increased the national debt by over $1 trillion. Yes. One trillion dollars. The fastest any president in U.S. history has accrued that level of debt.

Our president has mocked and belittled our immigration laws, our intelligence agencies, our foreign policy strategy and even the American people. We have been called “stupid,” “weak,” “a joke” and “pathetic,” all by our own president.

Villaba went on to make a call of action to his constituents and to the American people, encouraging them to reject becoming “sordid, ugly, Trumpists who require anger and vitriol.” He continued:

But verily I say unto you today, if we do not stop this man now, today, over 500 days into his presidency, we will be equally culpable in what he has planned for our great nation. President Trump thinks you are a fool. He believes you will never abandon him. And he believes that that there is almost nothing that he can do that would cause you to abandon supporting him.

But what he doesn’t know is that you are not a fool. You, like me, are an American. And no man will own your heart and mind like this president thinks he owns you.

There is growing bipartisan support for impeachment proceedings against President Trump. Villalba’s impassioned op-ed provides further evidence that impeachment is not a partisan issue, but rather is an issue of upholding the laws of our country as laid out in the Constitution. Trump’s numerous constitutional violations demand an impeachment investigation – the American people and Congress must act now.

You can read Representative Villalba’s full op-ed here.

In an op-ed for the Huffington Post, Free Speech For People Legal Director Ron Fein challenges the notion that launching impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump must wait until the conclusion of the investigation conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Contrary to a common misunderstanding, impeachment does not require evidence that the president committed a federal crime. While senators will be right to question whether Kavanaugh would cast the deciding vote to protect Trump from prosecution, Americans must not surrender an important constitutional safeguard against a president’s non-criminal abuse of power.

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The fact that Trump has committed impeachable offenses that are not crimes has been lost in our current public discussion, which misleadingly speaks of impeachment as either a prerequisite to or a consequence for a finding of criminal violations. This narrow framing effectively shrinks the scope of Congress’ impeachment power by ignoring serious but non-criminal offenses like pocketing foreign emoluments and abusing the pardon power.

Click here to read the full article on the Huffington Post.

We have added a new ground to our call for Congress to start hearings on whether to impeach President Trump: cruel and unconstitutional imprisonment of adults and children.

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As reported by the New York Times, Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, recently stated that he believes Robert Mueller intends to follow Justice Department rules that make presidents immune to indictment while in office. Traditionally, politically appointed lawyers in the executive branch have argued that the stigma and distraction of being indicted would interfere with the president’s ability to carry out his constitutional powers.

Others, such as Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, have argued that presidents can indeed be indicted. Regardless, whether Mueller intends to follow this “rule” or not, it is clear that Congress and the American people will ultimately have the power to impeach Donald Trump.

We have already established eight grounds for impeachment proceedings against Trump. Members of the House have already introduced articles of impeachment. Mueller’s investigation and final report to Congress will be important to bolster these grounds, but we already have more than enough evidence to initiate impeachment proceedings.

You can call your representative and encourage them to support impeachment proceedings. Check out the following resource page for a script you can use when calling your representative’s office: Sample Script