{"id":43806,"date":"2020-01-19T13:18:39","date_gmt":"2020-01-19T21:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=43806"},"modified":"2020-01-19T19:09:23","modified_gmt":"2020-01-20T03:09:23","slug":"trumps-perverse-impeachment-defense-he-should-not-be-impeached-even-if-hes-guilty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=43806","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s Perverse Impeachment Defense: He Should Not Be Impeached Even If He’s Guilty"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Senate trial of Donald Trump’s Articles of Impeachment is set to begin on Tuesday. In advance of that, the Democrats released a 111 page brief<\/a><\/strong> on how they intend to prosecute the case against Trump. It’s a detailed and comprehensive outline of the high crimes and misdemeanors that justify Trump’s conviction and removal from office.<\/p>\n

\"Donald
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

On the other side of the aisle, Trump’s motley crew of Fox News lawyers<\/a><\/strong> released a shallow and lie-riddled response that hardly touches on the specific allegations against Trump. In fact, Trump’s official answer<\/a><\/strong> to the Articles of Impeachment is an emotional seven page rant that repetitiously makes a single point: that “the Articles of Impeachment are constitutionally invalid”<\/em> because they “fail to allege any crime or violation of the law.”<\/em> It further states that it is “a lawless process that violated basic due process,”<\/em> and that its consideration would be “subverting the will of the American people.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Every bit of that is utterly false and has no legal basis as a defense. The charge that there is no crime alleged is false because Trump’s efforts to coerce the Ukrainian president into aiding his scheme to smear Joe Biden is, in fact, a crime. So is withholding military aid allocated by Congress and signed by the President. So is ignoring Congressional subpoenas for documents and ordering his subordinates not to cooperate. But even if those weren’t crimes, it wouldn’t matter because the Constitution doesn’t require violations of criminal statutes. For one thing, there weren’t any criminal statutes at the time the Constitution was written.<\/p>\n

As for due process, that is a right granted in courts of law conducting criminal prosecutions. Due process doesn’t apply here because impeachment is a political process conducted in the Congress. Even so, Trump was permitted to present his witnesses and defense, but he declined to do so. He even refused after complaining about not having such an opportunity. And he’s still refusing to allow witnesses and documents that he says are exculpatory.<\/p>\n

The claim that impeachment “subverts”<\/em> the will of the people is bizarre on its face. Was it subverting the will of the people when Clinton was impeached? How could any impeachment – which is, of course, in the Constitution – be pursued without the prospect of removing an elected president? To suggest, as Trump’s response does, that impeachment is “a dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their President,”<\/em> is to assert that the Framers were out of their minds for including impeachment in the Constitution in the first place. They obviously didn’t include it with the intention that it never be used because it might result in a president being removed from office. And Trump probably shouldn’t raise the issue of “the will of the people”<\/em> to “freely choose their President,”<\/em> when he lost the election by 3,000,000 votes. If the will of the people were being respected, Hillary Clinton would be president.<\/p>\n

To bolster his argument that impeachment is invalid, Trump assigned the newest member of Fox News legal team, Alan Dershowitz, the task of presenting his case to the media. Dershowitz was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos where he offered up this preposterous legal theory:<\/p>\n

Stephanopoulos:<\/strong> Is it your position that President Trump should not be impeached even if all the evidence and arguments laid out by the House are accepted as fact?
\nDershowitz:<\/strong> That’s right.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

.@GStephanopoulos<\/a>: "Is it your position that\u00a0President Trump should not be\u00a0impeached even if all the evidence and arguments\u00a0laid out by the House are\u00a0accepted as fact?"<\/p>\n

Alan Dershowitz: "That's right." https:\/\/t.co\/lpd9l8H85g<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/auxhsVu5lG<\/a><\/p>\n

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 19, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n