For the first time in world history, crypto has ignited a constitutional debate over the feasibility of impeaching and removing a sitting President of a G20 country.
President Javier Milei of Argentina promoted LIBRA, a Solana-based memecoin that Milei briefly promised would support Argentinian small businesses.
After wallets controlled by serial crypto promoter Hayden Davis reportedly paid off Milei’s sister and pulled over $110 million in liquidity and trading fees from the token within a few minutes of its peak valuation, LIBRA started dumping and never rebounded.
For the record, Davis has since distanced himself from these reports, stating that he doesn’t remember making these claims and calling the coverage of them “politically motivated.”
Milei’s political opposition leader Leandro Santoro is calling for the president’s impeachment due to his egregious role in the calamity.
Argentinian attorneys are also pursuing fraud charges against Milei for his part in promoting LIBRA, alleging that he violated the country’s public ethics law.
Even Solana, the unaffiliated host blockchain for the project, has declined 14% over the past seven days due to negative publicity.
How Argentina could impeach Javier Milei
Argentina’s constitution explains how its Chamber of Deputies may impeach the president. The three categories of offenses that members may consider as grounds for impeachment are (1) criminal offenses, (2) crimes in official acts, or (3) poor performance (mal desempeño).
Mal desempeño is a purposefully vague category that could extend to Milei’s promotion of LIBRA, depending on the views of Chamber of Deputies members.
Specifically, the first stage of presidential impeachment in Argentina is indictment by the Chamber of Deputies. Such a charge of indictment must originate from a deputy within this legislative house.
A vote for indictment then requires “ayes” by two-thirds of the present members of the House of Deputies.
Regarding Milei, deputies of the Socialist Party and Unión por la Patria have recently submitted a request to impeach, citing the constitution’s Article 53. A supermajority vote in the chamber has not yet occurred.
Once indicted there, impeachment proceedings would then advance to the Senate. The Senate would conduct a public trial with the Supreme Court Chief Justice presiding.
Conviction after this trial would then require a two-thirds majority of present senators.
Removal from office is the sole penalty, and any subsequent criminal liability would be deferred to ordinary courts.
Milei backtracks and begs for distraction
As proceedings to impeach Milei begin, the president’s press team is scrambling in damage control mode.
The Office of the President has already downplayed Milei’s support of LIBRA, claiming that he merely “shared a post on his personal accounts announcing the launch of KIP Protocol’s project, as he does daily with many entrepreneurs who wish to launch projects in Argentina to create jobs and attract investments.”
That is certainly another way to characterize a presidential endorsement of a memecoin that declined from a market capitalization of over $4.4 billion to less than $300 million in just three days.
Read more: Memecoin influencers LA Vape Cabal on the defensive following ‘Libragate’
Milei also deleted his original X post about LIBRA, claiming he was “not aware of the details.” He also un-retweeted an explainer of how to purchase the token.
The immutable history of LIBRA’s collapse
Those deletions do not erase the chart history on Solana exchanges like Meteora and Jupiter that permanently track the token pumping by thousands of percentage points on Milei’s now-deleted X posts, allowing insiders to cash out and take over $100 million in profits before the whole thing collapsed.
As the president’s office has opened a corruption probe and the Argentine House of Deputies begins indictment proceedings against Milei, there is no guarantee that a full impeachment will actually occur. Because impeachment from the Office of the President requires two supermajority votes of both legislative houses, Milei still has some time to fight for his right to remain in office.
Of course, even if impeachment proceedings ultimately stall, that pause would not mean that Milei would remain immune from criminal charges in traditional courts relating to his LIBRA promotion.
