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1 | | SENATE RESOLUTION
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2 | | WHEREAS, On January 20, 2017, Donald J. Trump took the oath |
3 | | of office
and became President of the United States, where he |
4 | | reiterated that he
would be "A President for all Americans"; |
5 | | and
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6 | | WHEREAS, There are considerable ethical concerns in terms |
7 | | of the
election and Donald Trump's selected staff; and
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8 | | WHEREAS, Our democracy is premised on the bedrock principle |
9 | | that no
one is above the law, not even the President of the |
10 | | United States; and
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11 | | WHEREAS, Donald J. Trump has attempted on two separate |
12 | | occasions to
undermine this nation's Constitution by |
13 | | instituting travels bans
targeting specific ethnic and |
14 | | religious minorities; and |
15 | | WHEREAS, A recent rise in anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim |
16 | | rhetoric and
criminal activity has been attributed to Americans |
17 | | that fervently
support the Trump administration and have cited |
18 | | that Trump's
nationalist rhetoric has emboldened them to carry |
19 | | out their hateful
missions; and |
20 | | WHEREAS, The Trump business empire has been embroiled in |
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1 | | questionable
business dealings from which Donald J. Trump has |
2 | | refused to release
various financial records and documents |
3 | | concerning his personal
income, along with that of his |
4 | | business; and |
5 | | WHEREAS, The Domestic Emoluments Clause of the United |
6 | | States
Constitution provides that, besides the fixed salary for |
7 | | his or her
four-year term, the President "shall not receive |
8 | | within that Period
any other Emolument from the United States, |
9 | | or any of them"; and |
10 | | WHEREAS, The term "emoluments" includes a broad range of |
11 | | financial
benefits, including but not limited to monetary |
12 | | payments, purchase of
goods and services even for fair market |
13 | | value, subsidies, tax breaks,
extensions of credit, and |
14 | | favorable regulatory treatment; and |
15 | | WHEREAS, Leading constitutional scholars and government |
16 | | ethics experts
warned Donald J. Trump shortly after the |
17 | | November 2016 election that,
unless he fully divested his |
18 | | businesses and invested the money in
conflict-free assets or a |
19 | | blind trust, he would violate the
Constitution from the moment |
20 | | he took office; and |
21 | | WHEREAS, On January 11, 2017, nine days before his |
22 | | inauguration,
Donald J. Trump announced a plan that would, if |
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1 | | carried out, remove
him from day-to-day operations of his |
2 | | businesses, but not eliminate
any of the ongoing flow of |
3 | | emoluments from foreign governments, state
governments, or the |
4 | | United States government; and |
5 | | WHEREAS, From the moment he took office, President Trump |
6 | | was in
violation of the Foreign Emoluments Clause and the |
7 | | Domestic Emoluments
Clause of the United States Constitution; |
8 | | and |
9 | | WHEREAS, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in |
10 | | Washington, whose
chair and vice chair of the board of |
11 | | directors are Norman L. Eisen and
Richard W. Painter, who led |
12 | | the administration's ethics policies under
President Barack |
13 | | Obama and President George W. Bush, respectively, has
filed a |
14 | | federal lawsuit against Donald J. Trump alleging that his
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15 | | "business interests are creating countless conflicts of |
16 | | interest, as
well as unprecedented influence by foreign |
17 | | governments"; and |
18 | | WHEREAS, As Donald Trump has repeatedly attempted to thwart
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19 | | investigations into his personal business dealings, he has also
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20 | | obstructed similar attempts to examine the Trump |
21 | | Administration's ties
to representatives of hostile foreign |
22 | | nations; and |
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1 | | WHEREAS, In May of 2017, Donald Trump abruptly fired FBI |
2 | | Director
James Comey as Mr. Comey began to intensify the |
3 | | Bureau's investigation
into alleged Russian interference in |
4 | | the 2016 General Election and the
possibility of collaboration |
5 | | with the Trump campaign; and |
6 | | WHEREAS, During a meeting at the White House on May 10, |
7 | | 2017, Donald
J. Trump appears to have leaked highly classified |
8 | | information to
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian |
9 | | Federation Sergey Lavrov
and Ambassador of the Russian |
10 | | Federation to the United States Sergey
Kislyak; and
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11 | | WHEREAS, These violations truly undermine the integrity of |
12 | | the
Presidency, corruptly advance the personal wealth of the |
13 | | President,
and violate the public trust; and
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14 | | WHEREAS, Section 4 of Article II of the United States |
15 | | Constitution
provides, that "The President, Vice President and |
16 | | all civil Officers
of the United States, shall be removed from |
17 | | Office on Impeachment for,
and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, |
18 | | or other high Crimes and
Misdemeanors"; therefore, be it
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19 | | RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL |
20 | | ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge the United
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21 | | States House of Representatives to support a resolution |
22 | | authorizing
and directing the House Committee on the Judiciary |
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1 | | to investigate
whether sufficient grounds exist for the |
2 | | impeachment of Donald J.
Trump, President of the United States, |
3 | | including but not limited to
the violations listed herein; and |
4 | | be it further
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5 | | RESOLVED, That a suitably copy of this
resolution be |
6 | | transmitted to all members of the United States Senate,
all |
7 | | members of the United States House of Representatives, all |
8 | | members
of the Illinois General Assembly, and the Governor of |
9 | | the State of
Illinois.
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