Posted on 01/10/2021 9:09:31 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Democrats have virtually no chance of successfully impeaching and removing President Donald Trump before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
“The case cannot come to trial in the Senate. Because the Senate has rules, and the rules would not allow the case to come to trial until, according to the majority leader, until 1 p.m. on January 20th, an hour after President Trump leaves office,” Dershowitz said in a Fox Business interview on Sunday.
Dershowitz, who defended Trump during the Senate impeachment trial about a year ago, suggested that the Constitution does not allow for impeaching a former president.
“And the Constitution specifically says, ‘The President shall be removed from office upon impeachment.’ It doesn’t say the former president. Congress has no power to impeach or try a private citizen, whether it be a private citizen named Donald Trump or named Barack Obama or anyone else,” he said.
It comes as House Democrats have proposed articles of impeachment after Trump made a speech to protesters near the Capitol. Some critics have claimed Trump incited the crowd into violence before a group stormed the Capitol building.
Trump told the crowd beforehand that their protest shows “the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country” and “let us walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.” The president did not tell the protesters to breach the Capitol or commit acts of violence and later condemned them.
At one point, Trump told the protesters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices be heard.”
Another Trump defender during the House impeachment inquiry, law professor Jonathan Turley, explained that impeaching Trump over his speech would set a dangerous precedent.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
Not to mention all of the books that will be coming out in the next few months from people who worked for Trump who will be forced to make up lies in order to get published.
Hey Alan,
You can’t shut down voting counts, send all Republican poll watchers home, drive in trucks full of ballots from who knows where and then completely turn an election on its head.
But they still did it.
We are no longer a representative Republic. Citizens have had their voice taken away from them.
Which means - the “rulers” can do whatever pleases them.
Like it or not, THAT is the reality that we have to deal with now.
Anyway, some of the more intelligent Democrats know that they’ll be facing the consequence of a great and terrible backlash for their current politics of hatred and criminality.
More intelligent democrats are probably fleeing their party.
I would say unlikely-but-not-impossible. I think there probably would be enough votes if the trial was going to happen before Trump leaves office. Aside from his existing opponents among Senate Republicans like Murkowski and Romney, I think more than a few hold Trump responsible for what happened on 1/6.
But because it will be after Trump leaves office, I think it’s fairly unlikely. I wouldn’t be surprised if a number of Senate Republicans will actually take the position that post-term impeachment proceedings are unconstitutional and use that as the reason for their “not guilty” vote, in order to avoid taking a position on the merits.
Regardless of the result of the impeachment proceeding, I would be surprised if the DOJ doesn’t conduct a criminal investigation of Trump as well. If I had to bet, though, I’d bet cooler heads will prevail and it won’t actually proceed to an indictment. Merrick Garland is not as moderate as Democrats made him out to be, but he’s no Eric Holder, either, and I doubt he has any interest in setting the precedent of throwing a former President in jail for an essentially political crime.
An alternative, somewhat-more-outlandish possibility is a deal where the Senate votes to convict on the articles of impeachment and disqualify Trump from further office, but Biden pardons him to preclude any criminal prosecution (and also to preclude any possible vindication of Trump through any criminal proceeding). This would be a bit dramatic for a lot of the players who would have to be involved, but it would achieve the result a lot of Republicans and Democrats would find ideal: Trump can’t run in 2024, but they avoid the spectacle of a criminal trial and possible imprisonment of a former President.
Addendum: I hadn’t read Clyburn’s comments when I responded earlier, so I didn’t grasp the significance of the “one hundred days” comment.
Waiting 100 days would be a big mistake for proponents of impeachment for one reason, and for Democrats generally for another: First, I think there is a distinction to be made between impeaching a former officer and impeaching a current officer and then trying him after he leaves office. Waiting until after Trump leaves office gives opponents a stronger argument that the process is unconstitutional.
Second, and maybe I’m being contrarian here, but as a conservative, I would LOVE it if the Democrat Congress wastes a significant portion of the next term on impeaching Trump rather than their own legislative agenda. It will only serve to mitigate the damage Democrats can do in 2 years, and will help Republicans in 2022.
By the way, I don’t think “impeachment proponents” and “Democrats” are congruent. There are pro-impeachment Republicans, and while I think all Democrats will vote in favor of impeachment and removal, some at least privately would rather not.
That’s why I think this 100-days plan may be an attempt by the Democrat leadership to bury impeachment. I think the smarter Democrats realize impeachment is not a good move, and want to chart a course that placates their base while avoiding shooting themselves in the foot with an impeachment. 100 days is a long time, and the 1/6 fiasco will be old news by then.
Well thought out arguments and much appreciated. Hopefully the fervor of the get Trump lynch mob will dissipate in the coming weeks. The left is like a pack of wild dogs fighting over a bone, and that bone is Donald Trump. Once they drop the bone they’ll start turning on each other.
Widget Jr wrote:
“Repeating that comment on every thread will not make it happen.” An expected comment from a fin Clinton voter
I Pray God it does because it’s needed!
The Dems could care less, it’s hate filled politics.
[I would say unlikely-but-not-impossible. I think there probably would be enough votes if the trial was going to happen before Trump leaves office. Aside from his existing opponents among Senate Republicans like Murkowski and Romney, I think more than a few hold Trump responsible for what happened on 1/6.]
No inside knowledge. Just my impression based on my observation of their public statements and actions.
It is not based on media accounts—I don’t trust reporters of any political stripe at this point, and rely as much as I can only on primary sources.
Now Manchin is saying the votes aren’t there, and he would know better than me.
[Now Manchin is saying the votes aren’t there, and he would know better than me.]
My sense is that GOP pols are going along with the Democratic and media narrative - that this is the storming of the Bastille rather than a random outburst/Animal House-type misadventure - because they want to get rid* of Trump by any means possible. They were hoping that by now, thanks to the full-court press by the American Pravda complex, Trump would be a universally-loathed GOP outcast. Their problem is that their plan has unraveled - they are getting pushback by GOP voters, and facing the possibility of political annihilation in 2022, if they proceed with this jump into the political abyss.
* If Trump had helped win GA’s two Senate seats, GOP pols would have backed off, since that would have been a sign of strength. The losses made them think his numbers were diving. My guess is that their voters have ripped them a new orifice re their underhanded attempt to stab Trump in the back. Peter Meijer, of the Reason “we’re all going to die” interview, was just elected to office to replace Michigan’s Justin Amash. Due to his anti-Trump rhetoric, it may also be his last term, and the end of his nascent political career.
yes they can. the senate has nothing to do with impeachment. the senate has the trial to remove from office, NOT to impeach.
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