Tag: Trump abuse of power

More bad news for McConnell: Two-thirds of voters want to see John Bolton testify

AlterNet logoIn the wake of multiple polls showing strong majorities of Americans believe the Senate impeachment trial should include witnesses and documents, a Quinnipiac survey finds that 66% of voters want to hear from one person in particular: former Trump national security adviser John Bolton. That 66% includes 39% of Republicans, 71% of independents, and 91% of Democrats.

Bolton’s willingness to testify in the Senate if subpoenaed is among the biggest prizes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acquired while delaying transmission of the articles of impeachment. Along with being quoted by his subordinates as calling Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani a “hand grenade,” Bolton had unique proximity to Trump during some of the most critical episodes in the Ukraine scandal. His testimony could send shockwaves through the GOP, based on his outsized stature within the party and all the information he was privy to. Continue reading.

Pelosi’s impeachment team represents the diversity of the Democratic caucus

Speaker hand-picked seven managers with a broad swath of backgrounds

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has chosen a small but diverse group of managers to make the House’s case for convicting President Donald Trump on two charges when the Senate impeachment trial begins next week, a move that reflects the membership of her own caucus.

Pelosi announced the managers, which include three women and three minorities, Wednesday morning, just hours before the House is expected to approve them and formally send the two articles of impeachment to the Senate.

The group, who flanked Pelosi during the announced, stands in stark contrast to the 13 white Republican men who managed the articles of impeachment for the House during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, almost exactly 20 years ago. Continue reading.

Pelosi names impeachment managers

The Hill logoSpeaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tapped seven impeachment managers on Wednesday, ending weeks of speculation over who in the House will step into the political spotlight and make the case before the Senate to remove President Trump from office.

Some of the newly named managers were considered shoo-ins, including House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), whom Pelosi named as lead manager, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler(D-N.Y.). Both lawmakers had leading roles during the months-long impeachment inquiry last fall into Trump’s contacts with Ukraine.

Others picked for the high-profile role were also widely considered to be leading candidates, including Democratic Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus; Val Demings (Fla.), a member of both the Judiciary and Intelligence panels; and Zoe Lofgren (Calif.), a senior member of the Judiciary panel and the only member of Congress to have participated in both the Nixon and Clinton impeachments. Continue reading.

McConnell: Senate impeachment trial to start next Tuesday

The Hill logoSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says the Senate will begin debating an organizing resolution to start the Senate trial on Tuesday of next week.

The GOP leader said Chief Justice John Roberts will swear in senators as jurors this week, before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

McConnell said the House is expected to send over articles of impeachment on Wednesday and that the Senate will then have to go through a series of preliminary steps and housekeeping measures. Continue reading.

Roberts would hold the gavel, but not the power, at Trump impeachment trial

The chief justice is likely to punt contentious and political questions to lawmakers

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. will preside over any impeachment trial of President Donald Trump as the Constitution requires, but don’t expect him to make decisions that substantively reshape the action.

Although there is speculation about how active a role Roberts will take in an impeachment trial and whether key witnesses testify, the Senate under past rules has given relatively little authority to the nation’s top judicial figure. And in the areas Roberts might have authority to make rulings, such as questions about whether evidence is relevant, the rules also allow the Senate to call for a vote to overrule him anyway.

Also, past impeachment trial rules, such as those for President Bill Clinton in 1999, give the chief justice the ability to defer making a ruling on his own and instead put a question to a Senate vote. Continue reading.

Five lingering questions as impeachment heads to Senate

The Hill logoSpeaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday ended weeks of speculation surrounding the Democrats’ impeachment effort, announcing the House would vote as early as next week to send a pair of articles to the Senate. 

The move is indication that the Speaker, who’d delayed the transmission of the articles in an effort to win procedural concessions from Senate GOP leaders, is ready to launch the trial in the upper chamber despite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell‘s (R-Ky.) refusal to accept her demands.

Yet there are plenty of lingering questions about how the esoteric process will unfold over the next several weeks, as both sides vie for an upper hand in the high-stakes debate over the propriety of President Trump’s handling of foreign policy in Ukraine. Continue reading.

Even after the Senate trial begins, the House could still add more impeachment articles

The 1936 impeachment of a Florida federal judge outlines the process for adding new charges

House Democrats are preparing to send two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate, but they still could add more — even after the Senate trial begins.

If the House managers appointed next week found evidence to support additional articles of impeachment against the president, whether from potential witness testimony on the Senate floor or through other means, they could march back across the Capitol and seek an amended impeachment article resolution on the House floor.

While there is no reason to suspect House Democrats would add new charges, a precedent referenced in Jefferson’s Manual from the 1936 judicial impeachment of Halsted L. Ritter, who had been a federal judge based in Palm Beach County, Florida, appears to give them that power. Continue reading.

Democrats brace for round two of impeachment witness fight

The Hill logoSenate Democrats are preparing for round two in the fight over impeachment trial witnesses.

Now that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has won round one, saying he has the 51 votes needed to start President Trump’s impeachment trial without an agreement on potential testimony, Democrats are vowing they will force votes at multiple points during the trial.

The strategy sets up key junctures to watch during the likely weeks-long trial that, Democrats hope, keeps pressure on a handful of GOP senators they will need to win any of the looming procedural battles. Continue reading.

For Trump’s Republican defenders, is there such thing as too much presidential power?

Washington Post logoPerhaps more than any other modern president, President Trump has been blatantly intent on expanding his power. And Republicans in Congress have been willing to let him, especially on the two biggest news stories of the week: impeachment and Iran.

All presidents test how far they can push away Congress, especially when it comes to war. Congress has let presidents take the lead when it comes to military conflict, despite lawmakers’ constitutional right to be the branch that declares war.

But legal experts The Fix spoke to also say Trump is rapidly expanding presidential power, and most of the Republican Party is cheering him on — even as it happens at the expense of their own power to hold future Democratic presidents accountable. Continue reading.

Trump Faces the Ghosts of Presidents Past

It’s as if Trump took some of the biggest challenges that plagued former presidents and mushed them into a big, politically explosive ball.

A LOOMING SENATE TRIAL after a legacy-staining impeachment. Fights with Congress over the power of the executive to use military force without lawmakers’ express approval. Keeping Iran nuclear-free.

The ghosts of presidencies past are haunting President Donald Trump, who is grappling at once with several political and foreign policy crises that individually consumed the attention of previous presidents. And on top of it, Trump has to juggle them all as he seeks re-election in a deeply polarized political environment.

Trump returned from a two-week holiday stay at his Mar-a-Lago resort to a maelstrom of problems – some of them arguably self-created, his critics note. The GOP-led Senate, which is widely expected to acquit Trump of the two articles of impeachment approved by the Democratic-run House in December, was still feuding with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat who is still holding up the formal action until she sees what kind of trial the Senate plans to conduct. Continue reading.