U.S President Donald Trump arrives ahead of UFC 314 at the Kaseya Center, Miami Florida, U.S, April 12, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
There is little time left for Americans to stop President Donald Trump from committing war crimes.
Writing for The Nation on Thursday, legal expert Elie Mystal made it clear that Trump's war on Iran is unauthorized, unconstitutional and that Congress must act.
Congress is currently controlled by Republicans, many of whom defer to Trump. But Mystal thinks that with enough pressure in the right places, something could be done.
Trump's unilateral strikes came without congressional approval, Mystal explained. That violates Article I, Section 8, which grants Congress sole war powers. Trump's attacks have already killed thousands, including Iranian schoolchildren. It has also escalated regional violence and breached international law.
"We now have two weeks to remove the homicidal maniac running the country before he threatens the peace of the world again," wrote Mystal.
It presents a rare and urgent opportunity to legally remove Trump before he escalates war crimes against Iran, Mystal explained. Nothing may have happened the last two times, but there is one thing that is different.
Mystal argued: the Supreme Court immunity rulings mean Senate conviction is now his only accountability, and removal ends his era permanently.
"When Trump escaped conviction over January 6, then-Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said, 'President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office,'" Mystal recalled. "I do think McConnell believed that when he said it. And it was true, when he said it. But it’s not true anymore. The Supreme Court has since declared that Trump is immune from prosecutions for criminal actions he takes while in office. If Trump is impeached again, the Senate will know that conviction in the Senate is the only form of accountability Trump will ever face."
Politically speaking, Mystal said that Trump is a lame-duck president. Arguably, he was in the second impeachment, too, but he had the power to run for office again. This time, Trump cannot run again legally.
"Impeachment and removal would end the Trump era with more finality than anything we’ve seen before. There might be some senators interested in that. Is that enough to get us 67 votes for conviction on an impeachment charge? Probably not," he wrote. "Again, I’m not stupid. But conviction isn’t the only way to accomplish the most essential goal."
Even without conviction, the impeachment process restrains Trump by pressuring him to avoid nuclear escalation or turning his trial into a referendum on illegal war he said.
"There may be no way we can stop the madman in the White House. But if the worst comes to pass, it won’t matter if it was somebody else’s fault.
"He must be stopped. We must impeach and remove Trump from office. We must, at least, try," Mystal closed.
