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Can Trump be impeached for his campaign’s ties to Russia? – Metro US

Can Trump be impeached for his campaign’s ties to Russia?

Can Trump be impeached for his campaign’s ties to Russia?
Reuters

Nary 100 days into its administration, and revelations that PresidentDonald Trump’s cabinet has had multiple contacts with Russian officials are abundant.

On Feb. 9, just aday after Attorney General Jeff Sessions was confirmed for his new role in Washington, former national security advisor Michael Flynn stepped down from his post for discussing U.S. sanctionsin phone calls with a Russian ambassador.

Less than a month later, Sessions announced he would recuse himself from any investigation into ties the Trump campaign had with Russia — for his contact with the Kremlin, which he omitted from Senate hearings before his confirmation.

RELATED: How to impeach a president

Public opinion is building against Trump on the Russia issue. In the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, a plurality 38 percent of respondents think Trump’s relationship with Putin is “too friendly.” More than half think Congress should investigate the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.

One lawmaker thinks such an investigation would “lead to” Trump’s impeachment.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California, said last week that after Sessions’ announcement that Democrats have to continue probing the president’s team.

RELATED: Trump has done enough to be impeached: Ellison

“We got to drill down,” Waters said on MSNBC. “We’ve got to connect the dots. And we’ve got to follow the money.”

This isn’t the Democrats’ first talk of impeaching Trump.

Congressman and newly minted DNC Vice Chair Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, said last month that Trump’s violation of the Emoluments Clause in Article I of the Constitution is grounds for impeachment.

And Sessions and Flynn aren’t the only Trump team members with ties to Moscow.

Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, stepped down last summer after a New York Times report that unearthed a secret ledger listing $12.7 million paid out to Manafort, who was once a lobbyist in Ukraine.

RELATED: Trump is ‘naive,’ doesn’t understand Putin: Russia report

That same Times report also detailed investigations into Carter Page and Roger Stone, also Trump advisers (Page on foreign policy, and Stone, an unofficial adviser).

Page reportedly met with Sergey Kislyak, the same ambassador Flynn was in contact with; Stone, meanwhile, claimed to have intimate knowledge regarding Hillary Clinton’s emails before WikiLeaks released them last summer.

Kislyak also reportedly met with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, New Yorker magazine reported in December.