The United States Federal Government ought to begin the process to impeach Donald Trump

Contention 3: Trump has broken U.S. laws Link: Conflict of interests Trump can be clearly seen, while in office, to have conflict of interests between his work and responsibilities as president, and his independent business interests. This can be seen two ways A: The Travel Ban Trump instituted, through executive order, a ban on travel from select Middle-eastern countries. This may not have been a big deal. After all, President Obama instituted a similar ban that lasted for six months... and no one had an issue with it. The difference of Trump's travel ban is that it excluded specific countries with which Trump had business dealings. Trump clearly used his power as president to show favoritism to countries with which he had business connections. B: Vladimir Putin Throughout the election cycle and even in actions taken during his presidency, Trump has shown favoritism towards Vladimir Putin. Trump supported Putin's actions even when it was shown that Russia had interfered to some extent in the U.S. presidential elections. The only plausible reason for Trump to do this would be to maintain relations with Russia. Trump has a personal interest in maintaining relations with Russia, because he has extensive business dealings there. Thus Trump is clearly showing favoritism to a country that should have been penalized, but was rather given grace for the sake of Trump's personal interests. Link: Personal Conflicts are prohibited by U.S. law 18 U.S. Code " 208 - Acts affecting a personal financial interest "Whoever, being an officer or employee of the executive branch of the United States Government, or of any independent agency of the United States, a Federal Reserve bank director, officer, or employee, or an officer or employee of the District of Columbia, including a special Government employee, participates personally and substantially as a Government officer or employee, through decision, approval, disapproval, recommendation, the rendering of advice, investigation, or otherwise, in a judicial or other proceeding, application, request for a ruling or other determination, contract, claim, controversy, charge, accusation, arrest, or other particular matter in which, to his knowledge, he, his spouse, minor child, general partner, organization in which he is serving as officer, director, trustee, general partner or employee, or any person or organization with whom he is negotiating or has any arrangement concerning prospective employment, has a financial interest"Shall be subject to the penalties set forth in section 216 of this title" If a member of the executive branch of government is found to take actions that were personally motivated, they are to be penalized. In other words, personal motivation in executive action is illegal. Permit me to provide the legislation for the mentioned penalties. 18 U.S. Code " 216 - Penalties and injunctions (1) Whoever engages in the conduct constituting the offense shall be imprisoned for not more than one year or fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both. (2) Whoever willfully engages in the conduct constituting the offense shall be imprisoned for not more than five years or fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both. If an individual is found to have a personal conflict that motivated an action, they are subject to prison time. Now as you know, the president is exempt from these penalties. Due to the nature of his position, the only way to penalize the president is to impeach him. This established, I will turn to the arguments presented by my opponent. I have two responses. 1. We are debating what should be, not what can legally be. As I mentioned in my resolutional analysis on morality, we are talking about what should be. Legality is irrelevant. 2. Congress has a moral obligation to impeach Trump. We have agreed that Congress has an obligation to represent the people. Thus Congress has a moral obligation, regardless of legality, and the resolution is affirmed.