(Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)
Apparently the growing Ukraine scandal enveloping the presidency of Donald Trump is just too much for some conservatives, and they’re bucking the GOP trend of backing the president no matter what. Sixteen prominent conservative attorneys have authored a letter, published by Checks & Balances, in support of an “expeditious impeachment investigation”:
“We believe the acts revealed publicly over the past several weeks are fundamentally incompatible with the president’s oath of office, his duties as commander in chief, and his constitutional obligation to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ These acts, based on what has been revealed to date, are a legitimate basis for an expeditious impeachment investigation, vote in the House of Representatives and potential trial in the Senate.”
And who, exactly are the conservatives taking this stand? Biglaw/in-house counsel are well represented with Wachtell counsel and tweeter extraordinaire George Conway III, natch; former acting U.S. attorney general and current Sidley Austin partner Peter Keisler; Kirkland & Ellis partner and a former State Department official, Andrew Sagor; former Thomas clerk and senior associate at King & Spalding Marisa Maleck; former chairman of the Federal Election Commission and Caplin & Drysdale partner Trevor Potter; Boies Schiller Flexner partner and former deputy associate White House director of communications Jaime Sneider; general counsel to the Center for a New American Security Carrie Cordero; Stuart M. Gerson, partner at Epstien Becker Green and former Acting Attorney General of the United States; Sidley partner Alan Charles Raul, who served as Vice Chairman of the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board; retired Jones Day attorney Jonathan C. Rose; and former Justice Department lawyer and retired Jones Day partner, Donald Ayer. Plus a hefty dose of legal academics: Harvard Law School professor Charles Fried; Orin Kerr of University of California Berkeley School of Law; J.W. Verret of George Mason University Antonin Scalia School of Law; and Jonathan Adler of Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
As Ayer noted, there’s a lot of frustration behind the letter:
“I am disgusted by the conduct of Republican senators who pose as reputable people, but shamelessly hide under rocks instead of calling out the president’s horrendous behavior as the gross misconduct that they know it to be.”
We’ll see if anyone in the Republican party is listening.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).