WTC prosecutor: Swap is reason to impeach Obama

A former federal prosecutor who brought the evidence that convicted perpetrators of the first Islamic terror bombing of New York's World Trade Center says President Obama likely broke the federal law against supporting terror by releasing five Guantanamo Bay detainees in exchange for an American soldier.

Transferring the five terrorists to Qatar in exchange for the release of U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl "violates the law against material support to terrorism," Andrew McCarthy told the the Daily Mail of London.

McCarthy formerly was assistant U.S. attorney in New York. He led the 1995 prosecution of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and nearly a dozen others charged with the bombing, which failed to bring down the towers but killed six and injured more than a thousand.

McCarthy recently published a book, "Faithless Execution," concluding that while Obama many times has ignored the law, there is virtually no chance he will be impeached.

He said Obama's actions in releasing the five terrorists were not impeachable on the basis that many were citing, a requirement that the president give Congress 30 days notice before transferring the inmates, because that law itself is flawed.

In this situation, McCarthy said the argument that Obama ordered the terrorists moved without permission wouldn't wash.

"Congress unconstitutionally restricted the president's war power over the disposition of enemy combatants," he told the U.K. newspaper. "They could have properly done it by using the power of the purse to deny funds for the transfers, but that's not what they did."

However, the law also forbids any "material support to terrorism," he noted. And he said the president actions likely violated that provision.

"And because high crimes and misdemeanors (the offenses cited in the Constitution as reason for impeachment) are not statutory offenses but political wrongs that endanger the United States, the return of senior terrorists to the Taliban while we still have soldiers in harm's way is, in my view, a 'high crime and misdemeanor,'" McCarthy told the Mail.

An earlier book also made a case for impeaching Obama. "Impeachable Offenses," by Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott, has been called a blueprint for impeaching Obama, outlining the high crimes, misdemeanors, bribery and other offenses committed against the U.S. Constitution.

The Daily Mail itself called "Impeachable Offenses" "explosive," saying the book contains a "systematic connect-the-dots exercise that the president's defenders will find troublesome."

Among the offenses enumerated in the book:

Obamacare not only is unconstitutional but illegally bypasses Congress, infringes on states’ rights and marking an unprecedented and unauthorized expansion of IRS power.
Sidestepping Congress, Obama already has granted largely unreported de facto amnesty to millions of illegal aliens using illicit interagency directives and executive orders.
The Obama administration recklessly endangered the public by releasing from prison criminal illegal aliens at a rate far beyond what is publicly known.
The president's personal role in the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attack, with new evidence regarding what was transpiring at the U.S. mission prior to the assault – arguably impeachable activities in and of themselves.
Illicit edicts on gun control in addition to the deadly “Fast and Furious” gun-running operation intended, the book shows, to collect fraudulent gun data.
And more.

The definitive case for removing Barack Obama from office is presented in "Impeachable Offenses" by Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott.

The Constitution cites offenses that are cause for removal for a president including treason, bribery or "high crimes and misdemeanors."

McCarthy argues that there are a multitude of reasons for Obama's impeachment, and the release of the terrorists probably isn't even in the top ranks.

"I would never impeach based solely on it, but I would add it to a larger indictment," he told the Mail, which reported his book lays out allegations involving Obamacare, the failure of his foreign policy and practice in Benghazi, the coverup of the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal and the IRS agenda that let to deliberately targeting conservative organizations.

Members of Congress had raised their voices over the president's failure to notify them of his plans to release terrorists, calling it a violation of the federal law that requires a 30-day notice period before such action is taken.

Several already have announced plans to hold hearings on the dispute.

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin noted that Obama, when he signed the law, said he didn't agree with the 30-day notice requirement.

But Obama signed it, he noted.

Toobin believes Obama "clearly broke the law."

"He didn't give 30 days' notice."

While Obama had complained at the time he signed the law that he needed to have "flexibility" to "act swiftly in conducting negotiations with foreign countries regarding the circumstances of detainee transfers," it still became law, critics in Congress noted.

The definitive case for removing Barack Obama from office is presented in "Impeachable Offenses" by Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott.

WND reported last month that the idea of impeachment was raised again when it was discovered more than 36,000 criminal illegal aliens had been released last year as part of a larger annual trend of thousands of such releases under Obama's administration.

The report by the Center for Immigration Studies found that in 2013 the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, released murders, rapists, kidnappers and drug dealers.