President Trump’s controversial dismissal of FBI Director James Comey has raised the odds of a possible impeachment.
President Trump’s controversial dismissal of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday has raised the odds of a possible impeachment.
Politico is reporting that, as of Wednesday afternoon, traders on the betting site PredictIt had given Trump an 83 percent chance of serving his term through the end of this year.
The media outlet notes, "That’s down from 87 percent at the close of trading Tuesday — though the price has stabilized from the low-water mark of 79 percent following the Comey news."
The trend has been similar with Irish oddsmaker Paddy Power who told The Independent, “In the past 24 hours alone we’ve seen money for Trump to be impeached in his first term...”
The spokesperson added, “We can attribute this to the news of Comey’s sacking. [That] is the shortest we’ve been for Trump to be impeached in his first term.”
Betting sites aren’t the only ones predicting a potential Trump impeachment in the wake of Comey’s firing; Democratic Representatives Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin have indicated there may be cause to pursue such proceedings if they can prove the president dismissed Comey in order to impede the investigation into Russia.
But Harvard law professor Mark Tushnet has told Vox that Trump “had the authority to fire Comey for any reason whatsoever, including the fact that, as appears to be the case, Comey was pursuing the Russia investigation more vigorously than Trump wanted.”
Tushnet speculates that the president may, however, be accused of obstruction of justice if he does not provide accurate information about his financial and other dealings with Russia.
