Posted on 12/17/2019 8:35:13 AM PST by Kaslin
Now that the House is set to impeach President Trump for what its Nadler-led Judiciary Committee decided were “impeachable offenses,” it is time to consider what will or, more important, should happen in a Senate trial. In my view, no matter the utter lack of substance in the articles of impeachment certain to be approved by the House this week, the president should prepare to mount a vigorous defense and Senate Republican leaders should assist, not impede him.
As an Impeachment Manager in the 1999 trial of former President Clinton, I learned very early that an impeachment trial in the Senate has little in common with “normal” trials that take place daily in federal and state courtrooms according to well-established rules of procedure.
Each and every impeachment that crosses the Capitol Rotunda from the House to the Senate, comes without any pre-existing rules of procedure for the trial, whether for a federal judge or a president of the United States. The Senate must adopt by simple majority vote unique rules for the conduct of each and every impeachment trial, including whether to allow live witnesses to testify and the scope of evidence to be admitted. These are extremely important tactical decisions and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell must not allow Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to massage them into pablum.
It is important the president keep these procedural nuances in mind as he decides who will represent him in the upcoming trial, and what strategy to pursue.
he situation will be very different from the one Clinton faced two decades ago. In January 1999, the Democrat president confronted a Republican-led Senate. Yet, even in those circumstances, the Senate adopted procedures for Clinton’s trial that severely handicapped the ability of the House Impeachment Managers (including myself) to prosecute the case against him – allowing no live witnesses and severely restricting the evidence that could be presented.
The restrictive rules under which we were forced to proceed in January and February 1999, reflected the fact that the Senate – even under Republican control – had no stomach for an impeachment trial, notwithstanding the strong evidence developed by the Independent Counsel’s Office and the House Judiciary Committee that Clinton clearly had violated federal criminal laws against perjury and obstruction of justice.
Now, 21 years later, a Republican president will face a Senate majority of his own party. Trump would be well-advised not to presume the GOP-controlled Senate will necessarily protect his interests in establishing the parameters for his trial. It is Trump’s future that will be on the line there, not that of any Senator and the forum in which he defends that legacy must be one that allows him to present as broad a defense as he desires.
Unlike the substantive articles on which Clinton was impeached, those presented by the House Judiciary Committee against Trump are astounding in their weakness. They lack even the pretense of substance, relying on the vaguest notions of “abuse of office” and “obstruction of Congress.” Thrown into the mix at the last minute by the Judiciary Committee in its report, are bizarre charges that the president is a “threat to national security” and that he “betrayed the nation.” Rather than strengthen the already weak case developed by the Judiciary Committee (and the Intelligence Committee before it), such hyperbole simply confirms that the report is nothing but a political hit job.
With this background, the only substantive record with which the Senate, the American people, and history will be able to fairly judge President Trump, will be that presented publicly in the Senate trial. In fairness to the president and to that history, this must include live witness testimony, including from the so-called whistleblower, along with any others the president desires. This is the only way for him to place into full and fair context all that body of evidence the House Democrat majority chose to ignore.
To present that defense, Trump must have a legal team chosen by him and for him -- strong, single-minded individuals dedicated to vindicating him completely, and savvy as to the Senators who will determine his constitutional fate. Members of the team should possess a variety of skills but be fully complementary. Some of those members may already be working with Trump, others not yet, but each and every one must be mindful that they will be defending not only a president unjustly accused, but a Constitution deeply damaged in the rush to judgment by House Democrats.
I beg to differ.
No cause to defend a false premise.
It hasn’t even passed the house yet and everybody has him impeached already. Sickening.
Trump doesn’t take advice from losers like Bob Barr.
Dems will implode on themselves.
There ain’t gonna be any trial.
I agree. The case will be dismissed. Currently the Repubs are in a winning position. Why prolong it when it can be ended with the Repubs ahead.
Because there was an attempted coup against Trump by the Deep State and the truth needs to finally come out. That's why.
A trial will prove nothing. We know he is not guilty and the Dems don’t care. A trial is just another opportunity for Democrats to bring out a new liar with incredible claims.
“We have to Impeach to know what’s in it.”
there shouldn’t be any trial-the mainstream media only reports negatives on Trump-just see how they ignored Graham’s opening remarks on IG and damaging reports to dems
mainstream media still controls the narrative
Yes, but it’s Trump who would be on trial not the DS.
Let Barr and Durham file charges against the DS then they will be on the defense and Trump would be on the sideline.
Agreed, giving this more than a day in the senate provided too much credibility to this circus kangaroo court. Slam dunk it, over in a day or two.
Republicans will never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity fight back. Wusses all.
Ain't gonna happen. This is the only chance to get it out, anyone with brain knows this is true. Don't project your effete attitude on all the rest of us that have guts.
Exactly, no one from the Democrats will be indicted from an impeachment trial. Just shut it down and bring all the real perps in front of a Grand Jury.
Ace McCain’s Senate buddies have a lot to lose in a trial.
So the Rats’ handlers are already planning Impeachment++.
Perhaps you should watch all three of the videos from OAN and Giuliani like I did last night and see if your opinion changes.
A bigger circus tent isn’t going to any kind of fighting back. The Democrats will just create more new lies that the media will parade around until the election, Or the next 50 years.
Fighting back is putting the whole cast of perps in jail and that isn’t going to happen in the Senate.
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