Posted on 01/30/2020 10:18:59 AM PST by jazusamo
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday hammered the lawyers leading President Trump's impeachment defense, saying they've trampled on the Constitution while questioning how they've been allowed to keep their jobs.
"I don't know how they can retain their lawyer status, in the comments that they're making," Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol.
Pelosi was responding largely to comments made Wednesday evening by Alan Dershowitz, a celebrity lawyer on Trump's legal team, who asserted on the Senate floor that presidents cannot be impeached for actions designed to boost their reelections — if they believe that retaining a grip on the White House is in the best interest of the country. And "every public official I know," he added, considers that to be the case.
"If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment," Dershowitz said.
The exception, said Dershowitz, an opinion contributor to The Hill, would be cases where the conduct violated a specific law. The Democrats' two impeachment articles, charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, fall outside the federal criminal code.
"The articles of impeachment violate the Constitution," Trump's leading lawyers, Jay Sekulow and Pat Cipollone, said at the outset of the Senate trial. "They are defective in their entirety."
Democrats have vehemently rejected the White House arguments, saying impeachment is an inherently political — not judicial — response designed to protect the country from elected officials who violate the public trust, crime or none. Their impeachment case hinges on allegations that Trump violated that trust in withholding U.S. military aid to Ukraine to press the country's leaders to find dirt on his political rivals.
Pelosi on Thursday accused Trump's Republican allies of trying "to dismantle the Constitution" in their defense of the president.
"Some of them are even lawyers," she said. "Imagine that you would say — ever, of any president, no matter who he or she is or whatever party — if the president thinks that his or her presidency ... is good for the country, then any action is justified — including encouraging a foreign government to have an impact on our elections.
"[That] is exactly what our Founders were opposed to — and they feared," she added. "I don't think they made the case. I think they disgraced themselves terribly in terms of their violation of what our Constitution is about and what a president's behavior should be."
Pelosi's comments came several hours before the Senate launched the ninth day of the impeachment trial, featuring the second day when senators will be allowed to ask questions of Trump's defense team and the House Democrats' prosecuting the case.
A central battle throughout the Senate process has revolved around questions of whether new witnesses and material evidence, which has emerged since the House voted to impeach Trump last month, will be allowed to appear.
Democrats have argued for the new information, noting that every other Senate impeachment trial in the nation's history has featured witnesses. Republicans are virtually united in their opposition to that plan, saying it was the job of the House, not the Senate, to conduct the underlying investigation.
One witness, in particular, is a focus of the fight: John Bolton, Trump's former national security advisor, has offered to testify before the Senate under subpoena. And his forthcoming book includes first-hand allegations of the president telling him directly that he was withholding aid to Ukraine to secure politically tinged investigations into his Democratic rivals — a direct contradiction of Trump's defense.
The Senate is expected to vote on the question of whether to call witnesses on Friday. At least two Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Mitt Romney (Utah) — have indicated they're likely to support that strategy. Democrats, however, need four defectors to secure the new information.
A wildcard in that debate is John Roberts, the chief justice of the Supreme Court who's presiding over the Senate trial.
Pelosi on Thursday said a Senate vote to acquit Trump would be invalid without calling new witnesses.
"He will not be acquitted. You cannot be acquitted if you don't have a trial; and you don't have a trial if you don't have witnesses and documentation," she said.
She also called on Roberts to step in and break a tie vote, in the event that three Republican senators vote for witnesses, creating a 50-50 tally. "I would think that they would have confidence in the chief justice of the United States," she said. "That's interesting to me that they're afraid of breaking a tie with the chief justice of the United States."
Pelosi declined to say if the House committees that have investigated Trump's pressure campaign in Ukraine — the issue that led to Trump's impeachment last month — would move to subpoena Bolton if the Senate does not.
"This is in the Senate now," she said. "We'll see what happens after that."
If Adam Schiff hasn’t been disbarred by now, then a law license is as worthless as a McDonald’s Happy Meal prize.
Why would Roberts be the one called to break a tie vote? Shouldn’t it be VP Pence?
Only way to fix is for the electorate to vote the DNC to the dark ages in terms of representation. Don’t count on California to do it. They are too far gone.
I suggest use of the 25th Amendment [somewhat extended] to remove the current Speaker of the House [being #3 in line].
Another piece of evidence that Pelosi is insane.
People need to be asking the Harvard Law School if this is what they teach and approve of.
Also, the DOJ needs to be asked if this is the kind of Prosecution they condone and train their staff to use.
Pelosi is just working out her fascist muscles.
She has turned this into a 3rd class self-serving three ring circus. What a waste . . . It’s called taxation without good representation. The taxpayers deserve better.
The woman has lost all concept of reality. If she had it to begin with.
She has been an inveterate liar for the entirety of her political career
Who cares - she wants Trump’s disbarred for what? Defending their client?
Remember, this is the woman who sat who sat on her House’s turd impeachment for a month.
Its a badge of honor for the President’s team to be attacked by the likes of her. All the more so given the House has no case.
She worries the President will be acquitted? Well judging by the trend in the Senate, Pelosi has no say in the outcome. All to the good.
“My uncle from Estonia got the misfortune of having to watch his family executed against the barn doors on their farm “
Wouldn’t that have been so nice if he could have given them a Glock surprise? Never give up your guns....ever.
You really don't think they conduct covert surveillance on just Trump do you? The deep state has the goods on everyone at their keystroking fingertips when they want it. "Six ways to Sunday " NSA data harvesters courtesy of the taxpayers, used to control anyone they want at any time.
Fecking Demons! If a man wins the presidency he can be impeached. If his lawyer defends him he can be disbarred. They are going pure scorched earth and they will reap thw whirlwind.
Except, if they impeached Trump and Pence became POTUS, Nancy would not become Vice POTUS. She stays #3 and is only #1 if BOTH #1 & #2 go at the same time. #2 gets to choose his own #2 if #1 is unable to complete his term.
That’s like Hitler saying...Not buying jewelry from a Jew is DISGRACEFUL.
That word is not for her to use...EVER.
Because she epitomizes it. It’s not fair.
Won’t be long now before she starts talking to empty seats just like old Schumer did in the Senate.
You’re assuming that Pelousy still has even an inkling of decency which could trigger a sense of shame; which I believe she no longer has. She applaudes the murder of babies in the womb. She chooses to lie, even at times when the truth would actually be more beneficial. Her bloviating about love of the Constitution while striving to disempower it, is just the latest.
—> “I don’t know how they can retain their lawyer status... <—
Tell that to the former Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Viktor Shokin you friggin nut! I suggest you gtfo of Dodge while you can. The man that leads the people that you’ve pissed off are coming to take you away haha..
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