Posted on 11/14/2019 1:09:52 PM PST by MarvinStinson
One of special counsel Robert Mueller's top prosecutors is offering advice to House Democrats for their impeachment proceedings against President Trump.
Andrew Weissmann, a former Justice Department official who was known as Mueller's "pitbull" during the Russia investigation, made his debut Wednesday as an NBC News legal analyst.
He explained how the House Democrats faltered in their first day of public hearings and should refocus their proceedings from Ukraine to United States election interference if they want to make an effective case against Trump.
"The key thing that the Democrats have to think about is, where are you going to be at the end? What is it that you’re going to be asking people to really care about? And you need to find out — and make the case for — why should there be impeachment where people vote to convict as opposed to acquit now, and not sort of let it go to the election?" Weissmann said on MSNBC.
He said Democrats "needed to focus on that this was about election interference in our election" and encouraged more analogies to the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation.
During an earlier appearance on NBC News, Weissmann also critiqued the Republicans' performance during the House Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday. Claiming the facts were not on their side, Weissmann said GOP lawmakers "raised a lot of confusion" as a defense counsel might do in a criminal case under similar circumstances.
Impeachment proceedings were touched off by a whistleblower complaint about a July 25 phone call in which Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to look into a conspiracy theory regarding CrowdStrike. He also urged him to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine. The elder Biden is a leading candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
One of the witnesses who testified on Wednesday, acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor, said he was told military aid to Ukraine was contingent on Ukraine publicly announcing these investigations. The congressionally mandated security assistance, meant to counter Russian aggression, was eventually given to Ukraine, but only after lawmakers complained and the whistleblower complaint was submitted to the Intelligence Community inspector general. The president claims he urged Ukraine to open the investigations to root out corruption in Ukraine.
"It's telling that he said it's really important that it be public," Weissmann said. "I don't really care whether you do the investigation. What's important is it be a public announcement of the investigation," he added.
Trump told reporters on Wednesday he does not recall a July 26 phone call with European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland, another impeachment witness, in which he was said to have asked about "the investigations."
Weissmann said this could be a "huge mistake" for Trump because Sondland and an aide to Taylor, David Holmes, who allegedly heard Trump on the call, could claim under oath that he said this, and the president "can't rebut it" unless he suddenly says he recalls the conversation.
“Andrew Weissmann, a former Justice Department official who was known as Mueller’s “pitbull” during the Russia investigation, made his debut Wednesday as an NBC News legal analyst.”
Best item in his resume is putting 4 innocent guys in jail , where two of them died, and all their convictions were overturned and Weisman was for guilty of ‘withholding exculpatory evidence” This guy, and Mueller, both POS
Unethical excrement! Tar and feathering would be appropriate for this clown! He is the reason for Trump..
lol
Translation: “Stop looking at Ukraine!”
More of the Russia hoax BS from the guy who peddled it for nearly three years,
Who said Jews and Muslims can’t get along?...
I’m not a shyster lawyer BUT I’ll give the DIMocRATS some advice IF they want ANY chance of their party SURVIVING as a major party after 2021: DROP this STUPID investigation NOW, have the DNC return the 50+ million dollars to the Treasury, BLAME it on Pelosi, Schiff, Waters & a few other LUNATICS/POWER-HUNGRY “leaders” & RESIGN from your congressional seat w/o delay.
Yours, TMN78247
(HAT TIP Qaz123)
Their opening statements should have been something like this......
I’m a career radical Leftist who worked under both Clintons and Obama.....a high-paid govt employee with several pensions that hates the United States, who has never done one thing to advance the interests of the United States.
Like my role models the Clintons and Obama, I’ve used my position to enrich my liberal friends, receive kickbacks and given away US taxpayer money to despots, tyrants and corrupt foreign governments without any accountability.
I have spent my professional career working overseas on the taxpayer dime, spending most of it getting drunk. I, nor any of my colleagues have ever cared about what any administration has wanted, except the Democratic Presidents, because ultimately we, the unelected and anonymous bureaucrats at State, control American Foreign policy.
We know it all and do it all. We do not care what anyone else thinks except Democrat Presidents and liberal foreign policy think tanks because that’s how we all skim money.
Anything I say here today is my liberal-biased opinion and interpretation of the situation even though I was not privy to the call, nor did I speak with anyone that was.
Everything I will share with you today is based on a conversation I had with someone in the lunchroom, who heard it from someone else, so I cannot actually attest to any facts. I can only attest to the many dog whistles I think I heard and my current emotional state.
.......ahem ahem ahem.....oops.....wrong script......
What I meant to say is.....
As a career Foreign Service Officer/Diplomat for the US Dept of State, although I do not agree with the foreign policy set forth by the current administration, I am here to testify to the committee on what I know. Even though everything I know is hearsay and from open source news outlets.”
The Democrats need to tread lightly when it comes to accusations of interferring with elections. They know their interference in the 2016 election is about to become front page news. (That's if the FISA report is ever released!)
If ever there was a person that deserved the blessing of the fig tree, it is Weissmann.
WOW.
Quite an overwhelming list.
Weissmann had YEARS to twist the legal system to "get" Trump - and he couldn't do it, even as a nakedly-partisan Democrat.
I'm going to encourage more analogies to Enemy At The Gates, myself...
This guy is literally right up there with Soros.
Staying true to leftist form, they would kill and eat their own children, to end liberty in America, end Israel, and spread and strengthen the grip of global socialism/totalitarianism.
If there is ever a person that needs to be hung, shot and tarred and feathered all at once, dirty filthy scumbag
Yes, and that’s only a partial list. The evidence is overwhelming, to say the least.
This fleabag should be far, far away even if the people speak Portoguese. What language do the Martians use.
...Sondland and an aide to Taylor, David Holmes, who allegedly heard Trump on the call, could claim under oath that he said this, and the president “can’t rebut it” unless he suddenly says he recalls the conversation.
_____________________________________________________
IDK....couldn’t the POTUS release a transcript and then could anyone sue the 2 witnesses for, oh, say: PERJURY?
In other words, they have already decided to overturn the election; they just need to find the right crime to accuse President Trump of in their agreed narrative.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.