Tag: Trump impeachment

McConnell proposes compressed schedule for impeachment trial

The Hill logoHouse impeachment managers will have 24 hours over two days to make their opening arguments when they begin to present their case against President Trump to the Senate Wednesday, according to a resolution circulated by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). 

President Trump’s team similarly will have two days to present their arguments and then senators will have a chance to ask questions and consider subpoenas of witnesses.

The resolution, as expected, does not require additional witnesses to be subpoenaed and does not allow House prosecutors to admit evidence into the Senate trial record until after the opening arguments are heard. Continue reading.

NOTE:  The final schedule is revised from this.

Legal experts compare Trump lawyers’ impeachment brief to the ‘scream of a wounded animal’

AlterNet logoTwo legal briefs were submitted over the weekend in connection with President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial: one from Democratic House impeachment managers, the other from the president’s legal team. Legal experts Benjamin Wittes and Quinta Jurecic, in an article for The Atlantic, assert that there is an enormous difference between the two: while the House brief is professionally organized, the one from Team Trump is a rambling mess that reads like “the scream of a wounded animal.”

“The House managers’ brief is an organized legal document,” Wittes and Jurecic explain. “It starts with the law, the nature and purposes of Congress’ impeachment power, then walks through the evidence regarding the first article of impeachment, which alleges abuse of power, and seeks to show how the evidence establishes the House’s claim that President Trump is guilty of this offense. It then proceeds to argue that the offense requires his removal from office.”

Wittes and Jurecic go on to explain why the document from Trump’s allies, unlike the House brief, is an embarrassment. Continue reading.

Parnas attorney asks William Barr to recuse himself from investigation

The Hill logoA lawyer for Lev Parnas, an associate of President Trump‘s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, is asking Attorney General William Barr to recuse himself from an investigation into alleged campaign finance violations against Parnas.

Joseph Bondy made the request in a letter sent to Barr and filed in New York federal court on Monday, CNN reported. In it, Bondy argues that Barr has a “conflict of interest” in the matter and that he should appoint a special prosecutor from outside the Justice Department to handle the case.

“Given the totality of the circumstances, we believe it is appropriate for you to recuse yourself from the ongoing investigation and pending prosecution of Mr. Parnas,” wrote Bondy.  Continue reading.

Trump may have ‘dictated’ part of his impeachment defense because arguments are ‘not legally sophisticated’: Former Nixon White House Counsel

AlterNet logoJohn Dean is a veteran of the Watergate era who has been offering insights on President Donald Trump’s many scandals. After having a lot to say about former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, Dean (who served as White House Counsel under President Richard Nixon) has recently been weighing in on the president’s Ukraine scandal. And Dean, during an interview with CNN’s Ana Cabrera on Sunday, speculated that Trump might have “dictated” some of his impeachment defense brief because the arguments used are “not legally sophisticated.”

The 81-year-old Dean told Cabrera, “I actually thought Trump might have dictated part of this brief like he did the letter that (White House Counsel) Cipollone sent to Congress that said that what they were doing was not proper. It’s of that vernacular. It’s not legally sophisticated. It actually plays to the base.”

In the impeachment defense brief, Trump’s attorneys argued that none of Trump’s actions with Ukraine amounted to impeachable offenses and asserted that Democrats are attempting a “brazen and unlawful” campaign to hurt his chances of being reelected in November. Continue reading.

Pro-Trump Republicans are blatantly disregarding oath to deliver ‘impartial justice’ — and ‘Americans should be worried’: conservative columnists

AlterNet logoAs President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial gets underway in the U.S. Senate, most Democrats realize that Trump is almost certain to be acquitted by the Senate’s Republican majority — especially in light of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and other Republicans making it painfully clear that they have no desire to honestly evaluate the evidence. Trump critics Bill Kristol and Jeffrey K. Tulis, in a January 20 article for the conservative website The Bulwark, ask a painful question: do Senate Republicans even take their oath to “do impartial justice according to the Constitution” seriously?

“Does that oath mean anything?,” Kristol and Tulis ask. “Anything at all? Citizens can’t help but suspect the answer is no.”

Kristol and Tulis go on to lament the fact that some GOP senators have been flaunting their intention to disregard their oaths. Continue reading.

Democrats push back on White House impeachment claims, saying Trump believes he is above the law

The Hill logoHouse Democrats on Monday hammered the White House’s impeachment defense heading into the Senate trial of President Trump, describing their historic effort as necessary to protect the country from a man who they say believes he is above the law.

In a nine-page memo, authored by the seven Democratic impeachment managers set to prosecute the case, the Democrats refuted “every allegation and defense” presented by the White House in its own trial preview, released over the weekend.

The Democrats also seek to pin responsibility on the GOP-controlled Senate, saying that a fair trial is contingent on their ability to call in witnesses and receive documents that the White House has so far blocked. Continue reading.

Trump lawyers urge senators to swiftly acquit Trump in impeachment trial

The Hill logoPresident Trump’s lawyers on Monday filed a brief urging the Senate to “swiftly” reject the impeachment charges against him, casting the articles as “flimsy” and accusing House Democrats of a partisan effort to damage Trump ahead of the 2020 election.

“The Articles of Impeachment now before the Senate are an affront to the Constitution and to our democratic institutions. The Articles themselves—and the rigged process that brought them here—are a brazenly political act by House Democrats that must be rejected,” Trump’s lawyers, led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Trump’s personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, wrote in a lengthy brief filed Monday afternoon.

The 110-page filing accuses House Democrats of crafting two articles that do not allege impeachable offenses and using impeachment as “a political tool to overturn the result of the 2016 election and to interfere in the 2020 election.” Continue reading.

Georgetown law professor explains why Alan Dershowitz’s legal argument will crumble under Senate questioning: ‘No sound basis’

AlterNet logoGeorgetown law professor John Mikhail suggested on Sunday that the portion of President Donald Trump’s defense which is being covered by Alan Dershowitz is destined to fail because it has “no sound basis” in history and law.

“There is no sound basis for Alan Dershowitz to claim that abuse of power is not an impeachable offense. In addition to being at odds with common sense, this claim is contradicted by a clear and consistent body of historical evidence,” Mikhail stated.

The law professor cited the impeachment of Warren Hastings in the 1780s. Continue reading.

George Conway: Why Trump had to hire this legal odd couple

Washington Post logoThis is what happens when you don’t pay your legal bills.

President Trump, whose businesses and now campaign have left a long trail of unpaid bills behind them, has never discriminated when it comes to stiffing people who work for him. That includes lawyers — which is part of the reason he found the need to make some curious last-minute tweaks to his team, announcing the addition of the legal odd couple of Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth W. Starr.

The president has consistently encountered difficulty in hiring good lawyers to defend him. In 2017, after Robert S. Mueller III became special counsel, Trump couldn’t find a high-end law firm that would take him as a client. His reputation for nonpayment preceded him: One major Manhattan firm I know had once been forced to eat bills for millions in bond work it once did for Trump. No doubt other members of the legal community knew of other examples. Continue reading.

New Evidence Troubles White House Because ‘Parnas Has Receipts’

Lev Parnas, a longtime associate of Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, is causing “concern” among White House officials after he publicly turned on the president and claimed “Trump knew exactly everything that was going on that Rudy Giuliani was doing in Ukraine.”

Parnas, who has been cooperating with the House Intelligence Committee and handed over a “trove” of impeachment documents last week, was integral to Giuliani’s efforts to pressure a Ukrainian investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

While some senators, including Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), have downplayed the relevance of Giuliani and Parnas’ efforts in Ukraine as they pertain to Trump’s impeachment, CBS White House correspondent Weijia Jiang on Sunday said there’s “a recognition among sources who are being honest that even if [Parnas is] not an official witness, he’s already impacting this trial.” Continue reading.