Tag: Trump abuse of power

Republicans Falsely Claim To Have Heard Witnesses In Trump Trial

The Senate Republican majority is all but set to vote to acquit Donald Trump in his impeachment trial, without hearing any witness testimony whatsoever.

Despite this, many senators have been misleadingly suggesting that witness testimony was in fact part of the trial.

The Senate Republican Communications Center, part of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office, posted a list of “Senate Trial Facts” Friday afternoon, intended to demonstrate why the GOP believed it was “time to move on.” Continue reading.

‘A permanent asterisk’: Acquittal at hand, Democrats sow doubt about Trump trial

Washington Post logoWere it up to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), historians would mention President Trump’s all-but-certain impeachment acquittal much the same way baseball fans mention Barry Bonds’s career home-run record — an achievement destined to be obscured by an eternal cloud.

While Trump, unlike Bonds, does not stand accused of benefiting from performance-enhancing drugs, Democrats started this week to make an aggressive case that the Republican-led Senate’s decision Friday to end Trump’s trial without summoning witnesses or documents should cast grave doubt on its outcome.

The charge has been led by the most senior Democratic officials as it grew increasingly clear this week that Republican senators would vote to reject additional evidence and pave the way for a largely partisan verdict.

Trump’s impeachment lawyer at center of disputed Bolton claims

Pat Cipollone allegedly witnessed a reported conversation in which John Bolton claims Trump tried to recruit him for his Ukraine scheme.

President Donald Trump is denying a new allegation that he coordinated with his top aides earlier than previously known on an effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political opponents — a claim that further entangles Trump’s top impeachment lawyer in the Ukraine investigation.

The New York Times reported earlier Friday that former national security adviser John Bolton claims in his forthcoming book that Trump directed him to ensure that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would meet with Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney.

Bolton reportedly indicated that acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House counsel Pat Cipollone — who is spearheading Trump’s defense at the Senate’s ongoing impeachment trial — also attended the early-May 2019 meeting in the Oval Office.

Republicans Are Twisting Themselves Into Knots Trying To Justify Acquitting Trump

They’ve offered tortured explanations for why no witnesses are needed in his Senate trial and why he shouldn’t be removed from office.

WASHINGTON ― Republican senators are providing incredulous explanations of their views on President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign toward Ukraine and what sort of punishment he deserves over it ― if any ― as a final vote on whether to remove him from office looms in the Republican-controlled Senate.

The swift acquittal promised by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) at the trial’s outset became all but certain Thursday night when Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a key swing vote, indicated he’d vote against calling witnesses in a vote on Friday. On Friday, the Senate followed through and voted to block witnesses from appearing ― a first in the history of presidential impeachment trials.

Alexander, in a statement explaining his decision, said he saw “no need for more evidence to prove something that has already been proven” ― i.e., that Trump pressured Ukraine to open investigations into a chief political rival, former vice president Joe Biden. The position contradicted Trump’s denial of that charge ― the crux of the impeachment case against him ― and the embrace of that denial by many other Republicans for months. Continue reading.

Senate GOP passes resolution setting up end of Trump trial

The Hill logoSenate Republicans muscled through a resolution on Friday night that paves the way for President Trump to be acquitted by the middle of next week.

The Senate voted along party lines 53-47 on the resolution, with every Democratic senator opposing it after Republicans rejected allowing witnesses or documents as part of the trial.

“A majority of the U.S. Senate has determined that the numerous witnesses and 28,000-plus pages of documents already in evidence are sufficient to judge the House Managers’ accusations and end this impeachment trial,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement. Continue reading.

Final impeachment vote postponed to Wednesday amid internal GOP spat

The Hill logoSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has postponed a final vote on articles of impeachment against President Trump until Wednesday in the face of opposition from Senate GOP moderates to his plan to wrap up the trial Friday or Saturday without deliberations.

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), emerging from a Senate GOP conference meeting, said senators now will return to the impeachment trial at 11 a.m. Monday to deliberate with a final vote on convicting or acquitting Trump set for Wednesday.

“There was some feverish discussion,” Braun said. Continue reading.

Senate rejects motion for witnesses at Trump impeachment trial

Trial now moves toward acquittal, but schedule far from certain

The Senate on Friday rejected a motion to hear from additional witnesses or to see new documents in its impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, ending weeks of speculation over whether Republicans would break with their party to extend the trial.

Republican senators largely stuck together in Friday’s pivotal 49-51 vote that would have allowed the body to subpoena new information before voting on whether to remove Trump from office on the two articles of impeachment presented by House impeachment managers.

The Senate adjourned, subject to the call of the chair, immediately after the vote as both parties huddled to determine next steps. The White House and Republicans leaders in the Senate had hoped to hold the vote to acquit Trump Friday night, but that may not happen. Continue reading.

Dershowitz: Trump trial is my ‘worst controversy’

The Hill logoCelebrity attorney Alan Dershowitz has become the lightning rod of the Senate impeachment trial. 

Dershowitz, 81, insists he isn’t a political supporter of President Trump and that he backed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

Yet the Harvard Law professor emeritus, who has repeatedly offered a public defense for Trump since his election, is now taking a star turn on the president’s legal impeachment team, delivering passionate and controversial statements extolling a broad notion of executive power.

And he’s doing so as he takes a 180 on arguments he made in 1998, when he argued against President Bill Clinton’s impeachment. Continue reading.

Republicans aren’t just lying. They are doing so shamelessly

AlterNet logoThe problem we face with the current iteration of the Republican Party isn’t just a matter of their extremist policies. As a matter of fact, other than their embrace of racism, sexism, and homophobia, they’ve become a post-policy party, existing almost solely by fueling grievance and resentment.

But it’s even worse than that. As a party that increasingly finds itself in the minority, they have launched efforts to disrupt our democratic processes via gerrymandering congressional districts and suppressing votes in order to maintain power.

Yet, it is still worse than that. As I noted recently, in their efforts to defend the most corrupt president in this country’s history, they have attempted to destroy the whole concept of facts, evidence, and reason. Nowhere is that more evident than the blatant, shameless lies they insist on telling about Joe Biden. Continue reading.

Limiting Senate inquiry ignores Founders’ intent for impeachment

Senators will soon decide whether to dismiss the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump without hearing any witnesses. In making this decision, I believe they should consider words spoken at the Constitutional Convention, when the Founders decided that an impeachment process was needed to provide a “regular examination,” to quote Benjamin Franklin.

A critical debate took place on July 20, 1787, which resulted in adding the impeachment clause to the U.S. Constitution. Franklin, the oldest and probably wisest delegate at the Constitutional Convention, said that when the president falls under suspicion, a “regular and peaceable inquiry” is needed.

In my work as a law professor studying original texts about the U.S. Constitution, I’ve read statements made at the Constitutional Convention that demonstrate the Founders viewed impeachment as a regular practice, with three purposes:

  • To provide a fair and reliable method to resolve suspicions about misconduct;
  • To remind both the country and the president that he is not above the law;
  • To deter abuses of power. Continue reading.