Analysis of Impeachment Trails Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Analysis of Impeachment Trails - Essay Example reflect negatively on the integrity of the US government while at the same time, taking no action will be taken as a laxity which would affect trust and relationships as well as granting the future holders of this office chance to abuse their powers (Stadelmann, 2011). The most unethical of the three cases is the Nixon’s case with the Watergate issue where he covered up and refused to hand over evidence of the Watergate affair which would have shown that his re-election committee burglarized the headquarters of Democrats party office headquarters. He used his powers to misuse the CIA, conduct illegal wiretapping, perjury and obstructed justice. Lucky for him he resigned before he was impeached. This is closely followed by Clinton case. His sexual encounters were not what led to his impeachment by the Congress but rather his perjury and abuse of office. He was a lawyer to begin with and he knew that lying under oath was the worst mistake that can be done through any trial. Lastly is Andrew Johnson’s case where immediately after the Tenure of Office Act was enacted in 1867 and whose aim was to prohibit presidents from removing from office holders without approval from the Senate, he still went ahead and tried to remove the Secretary of War Stanton. He then went ahead and criticized Congress in loud voices on top of using his office to abuse powers (Gerhardt, 2000). On Clinton, the ethical charge would be conducting misconduct by having sexual relations in office which amounts to extra marital affairs and lying about it even after having video evidence of the misconduct. As for the Andrew Johnson, the ethical charge would be abuse of power and going against the laws of the land which he is supposed to be on the forefront of protecting. When it comes to Nixon, there are several ethical charges the first being perjury, abuse of his power as a president and involving the CIA in crime as well as misconduct in office by harbouring criminals and refusing to cooperate