Ron Fein: Evidence and Momentum Grows for Trump Impeachment

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

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Evidence and Momentum Grows for Trump Impeachment

Posted May 31, 2017

Interview with Ron Fein, legal director with the group Free Speech For People, conducted by Scott Harris

While Donald Trump was in the midst of his first overseas trip as president, another explosive news report was published, casting an ever darkening shadow over his administration in office of just over 120 days. On May 26, The Washington Post broke the story that Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner had proposed setting up a back-channel between the Trump transition team and Moscow using Russia’s secure cyber equipment at either Moscow’s embassy or consulate. The newspaper said that Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak had reported to his superiors that Kushner made the proposal during a meeting with him on either Dec. 1 or 2 at Trump Tower, according to intercepts of Russian communications that were reviewed by U.S. intelligence agencies.

This new information regarding covert communication between Trump staff and Russian officials planned to be concealed from FBI/NSA surveillance, underscored the more serious allegation that the Trump campaign had colluded with Moscow to influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Trump’s own actions firing FBI Director James Comey and asking two senior intelligence agency officials to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of coordination between Trump and Moscow has only added fuel to the fire regarding obstruction of justice charges now being investigated by special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Ron Fein, legal director with the group Free Speech For People, which is circulating a petition advocating the impeachment of Donald Trump that has already collected more than 1 million signatures. Here, Fein assesses the mounting evidence that Trump has likely committed high crimes and misdemeanors, requiring the GOP-controlled House of Representatives to launch an impeachment investigation. [Rush transcript.]

RON FEIN: We've got at this point, over 1.12 million signers, which is incredible in a period of four months for people to join this movement so quickly. And what this is calling upon, is asking the House of Representatives in Congress to launch an impeachment investigation. And the way that works is that the Judiciary Committee of the House would conduct an investigation into whether there are grounds for impeachment. And we lay out the specifics of what we think they ought to be investigating. And that would be the first step in the impeachment process.

BETWEEN THE LINES: I have read that one congressional representative, Al Green, a Democrat of Texas, has actually started the ball rolling on impeachment. I'm not sure if he's been joined by others, as yet, but Ron, tell us a little bit about Rep. Al Green and what's happening there with the actual levers and gears in Congress to get this impeachment thing rolling.

RON FEIN: So Rep. Green gave a very powerful speech on the House floor, where he talked about one of the various grounds for impeachment that we've identified on our website, which is obstruction of justice, and how his threshold had been reached. He was ready, because impeachment is a process that should not be taken lightly. It's a very serious process that shouldn't be used for light or political purposes, even though it is a somewhat a political process by nature. And Rep. Green is the first one to take a stand and say, that we are ready now to begin this process and he is working with us, in fact, on developing of the next steps for what to do in the House. Other members of the House of Representatives have talked about impeachment as well, and we think that what'll happen is that it will take a little bit of time before a large mass comes along, but that the president continues to supply additional reasons and additional grounds. When we started this impeachment campaign, we were talking entirely at that point about the president's violations of anti-corruption provisions of the Constitution. When he began his obstruction of justice, that added a whole new dimension to it and I think that is really what's going to help drive this movement forward.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Ron, run down for our listeners what you feel are the most important grounds for impeachment that would stand the test that they're surely going to meet in the Republican-controlled House. And among those three reasons that I'm aware of – and you've run down a couple of them – is obstruction of justice, violation of the Constitutional provision on emoluments and well as the very real questions about collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government in an effort to influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

RON FEIN: So what we have focused on are two categories of offenses where we know that they are impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors and where the evidence is already solid, where we don't have to wait for extensive, additional, factual development in order to begin that impeachment process. And so, the two categories that we've identified: one, are the corruption clauses of the Constitution and there are two. One, called the foreign emoluments clause prohibits any federal government official from taking payments from foreign governments without permission from Congress and the president has been violating that since Day One, through his businesses. There's also the domestic emoluments clause, lesser known, that only applies to the president and prohibits him from enriching himself from the federal Treasury, beyond the salary that he gets. That's the first category.

The second category is obstruction of justice. And that was one of the articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon and it's a very serious offense that the president is in a special position to commit because he is in essence, the head of the executive branch that conducts investigations and does law enforcement and that's why it's such a great offense against the state when the president is interfering with ongoing investigations.

For more information, visit freespeechforpeople.org.