Posted on 12/19/2019 7:58:59 PM PST by karpov
WASHINGTON — The day after the House cast historic votes to impeach President Trump, Speaker Nancy Pelosi put an abrupt halt on the proceedings, holding back from sending the charges to the Republican-led Senate in a politically risky bid to exert influence over the contours of an election-year trial.
With some leading Democrats pushing to delay transmittal of the articles and others advocating that they be withheld altogether, the limbo is likely to persist until the new year. The House left town on Thursday for a two-week holiday recess without taking the votes to appoint impeachment managers, which is required to start the process in the Senate.
“We are ready,” said Ms. Pelosi, who has said she would not send the charges or name the lawmakers who would prosecute the case against Mr. Trump until she was certain of a fair process for a Senate trial. “When we see what they have, we will know who and how many we will send over.”
By withholding the articles, Ms. Pelosi is hoping that Mr. Trump — who is eager for a trial to present his defense and clear his name — will put pressure on Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, to commit to Democratic demands, including the ability to call witnesses during the trial.
But the speaker’s strategy is also a gamble. Having toiled to present the House impeachment inquiry and the votes on Wednesday as a somber duty rooted in the Constitution, Ms. Pelosi risks appearing to politicize the matter if she withholds the charges for negotiating leverage.
And Mr. McConnell was entirely unmoved by Ms. Pelosi’s tactics, delivering a speech on Thursday evening in which he appeared barely able to contain his amusement at what he regarded as the speaker’s missteps.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Okay fine, don’t submit the articles...case closed.
ROTFL!!!!!
So this is how it works, the Dems let the R’s have no witnesses without their consent (which means no witnesses) no cross examination, no part in the House impeachment, then they want the Senate to let them set the rules for the trial? How stupid do they really think we are?
Noah Feldman, a professor at Harvard Law School, published an opinion piece in Bloomberg on Thursday arguing against the House Democrats withholding the articles of impeachment, thus preventing the Senate from holding a trial. "Both parts are necessary to make an impeachment under the Constitution: The House must actually send the articles and send managers to the Senate to prosecute the impeachment. And the Senate must actually hold a trial," he argues. "If the House does not communicate its impeachment to the Senate, it hasn’t actually impeached the president. If the articles are not transmitted, Trump could legitimately say that he wasn’t truly impeached at all."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
PS: Please check my tagline.
God Bless You! :)
That’s a fair assumption about Clinton, who thought he would be removed.
He put the House in a bind with perjury (on camera no less).
But since he was lying about an affair is that a High Crime and Misdemeanor? Not to me but the suborning perjury sure was.
But no one wanted Gore (when you can have Bubba). No one wants Pence (when you can have Trump).
Even so , the paradigm of this as payback is just super ugly.
Best reply ever, but will Mr. McConnell do it?
I think he would for the right trade. Which sucks, he should just do it for righteousness.
However, this is D.C. and leverage is the currency of the kingdom.
Well officer, are you going to write me at ticket or not?
You think?? NYT strikes again
Mr. McConnell, declare the trial over, no articles, no impeachment, end of story.
Democrats are wicked...ALL OF THEM.
“It would allow the Democrats to try to get a Democrat majority Senate before the trial.”
Bingo!!!
Nancy is hoping their brain dead voters will not understand the full process.
The only way out of this is for Nanzi to forcefully say, “The dog ate the articles.” And laugh hilariously and for an extended period of time.
gswilder wrote:
“...They can do this, but McConnell cannot deem it, they have to vote to change senate rules, which currently require formal transferrance and assignment of house managers....”
But there aren’t any house managers; everyone’s gone on vacation for two weeks.
Let’s see. It appears that they think that Chief Justice Roberts will agree that they can bring in witnesses and documents that weren’t part of the articles of impeachment because the house didn’t think it would win in court. They also think Roberts will allow document discovery that they also did not want to test the courts on the privilege question.
The game appears to be that if they can get a few Rep. to vote for more witnesses/documents that Roberts can rule on the executive privileges during the trial and that would stop it from going to the full USSC.
However, McConnell needs to only approve rules for the trial that allow for the evidence presented by the House in the formal articles of impeachment and to rule all second/third hand transcribed testimony from the house is inadmissible. No live testimony needs to be allowed for the house managers since they already have the transcripts of their testimony.
If the house wishes to withdraw the articles and then conduct further interviews and document subpoenas they can. They are free to vote on another article of impeachment when they have conducted their full inquiry after the courts have ruled on executive privileges.
Pelosi is a senile POS.
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