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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCharge traitor trump with treason
I just started a petition on the White House petitions site, We the People. Will you sign it? https://wh.gov/iFRsK
Charge Donald Trump with treason for telling a foreign government to commit espionage against the U.S.
Considering the financial ties Donald Trump has with Russia, his candidacy for President is questionable at best. Now with the latest declaration that Russia should spy on the United States, he has gone beyond any doubt into treasonous territory. Charges of treason should be brought forth immediately.
longship
(40,416 posts)And sorry, what Trump did, as horrible as it is, is not treason here in the United States of America.
Here. Read it, please:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Three_of_the_United_States_Constitution
Thank you.
MADem
(135,425 posts)He thinks the other guys are great, and we're weak, and he talks them up and he puts us down. He incites them to spy on us, to hack our systems, to benefit himself. He wants them to interfere in a US election and he exhorts them to so do.
We weren't at war with Israel when Pollard went to jail for violations of the espionage act, for decades.
Sure, most would concede that the technical term "treason" (which can carry the death penalty) only applies in times war, but the behavior in times of peace, with or without strained relations, is appropriately described in popular shorthand as traitorous or treasonous, because he'd be looking at serious consequences were we in fact in conflict. I say the label is accurate in terms of describing his BEHAVIOR, if not the consequences that will accrue from it.
longship
(40,416 posts)I might add that the very good reason why treason is defined in the US Constitution is so that such a charge cannot be made casually, like some are doing here.
That is precisely why one should want to be a pedant about the term.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Now, you can parse away, all the live-long day, about how he wouldn't get "convicted" of treason, but the message he transmits, and that the American people receive, is that his conduct is "treasonous."
It's trending on twitter. So...whatever.
longship
(40,416 posts)And Twitter?
I guess that settles it.
MFM008
(19,808 posts)INCITEMENT.
P.s.
giving aid and COMFORT could be used.
Lancero
(3,003 posts)In the more loose 'enemies' definition, despite relations deteriorating with Russia it's not yet at the point that'd either side would outright admit to being enemies. Officially, we're not enemies.
MADem
(135,425 posts)We don't like our data hacked and our leaders disrespected by the likes of a two-bit former KGB thug who abandons his kid in East Germany and his wife when she gets a bit long in the tooth, like he's anything to write home about. Putin is a person of low character and it's not surprising that he likes his little puppet, Trump. If it wasn't for that dictator job he had going, Putin couldn't get a job as a doorman--he has a dour personality and an unhelpful demeanor.
mrmpa
(4,033 posts)are either on State Department servers, or the private server she used. Either one contains US government property & information. That's the request, to basically steal US property which is ESPIONAGE. That's where the crime is.
Fredalf
(1 post)Yes, and it need not be an enemy. a foreign power is sufficient. Just ask Jonathan Pollard.
jmg257
(11,996 posts)is treason?
Even though it was stated quite surely that the private server was never even hacked?
Strange.
tritsofme
(17,377 posts)Treason is a crime with a well defined definition, this is not even close, it makes you look very silly.
MADem
(135,425 posts)The HYPOCRISY of the GOP, with their boasting about their ownership of some imagined "high ground" on national security matters, having a fricken traitor who wants to jump in bed with our largest annoyance by urging him to commit espionage against us at the head of their ticket.
No one believes he's going to be frog marched or anything of that nature. It's symbolic but it points out a very real issue. If I were the NSA, I'd withhold classified material from him, or provide him with some irresistible false information and wait for him to leak it.