Tag: Trump impeachment trial

Democrats predicted Trump would make aid to states contingent upon political demands. Experts say he’s proving them right

AlterNet logoDuring President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, Democrats warned that he could tie aid to individual states in the U.S. to political demands — not unlike tying military aid to Ukraine to an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. And a tweet posted by Trump on Twitter on Wednesday is being cited by reporters as proof

On Wednesday, Trump tweeted that he would be meeting with Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the White House — and he demanded that New York State cease all investigations of him. The president posted, “I’m seeing Governor Cuomo today at The White House. He must understand that National Security far exceeds politics. New York must stop all of its unnecessary lawsuits & harassment, start cleaning itself up, and lowering taxes.”

Kyle Cheney, after seeing that tweet, wrote, “Trump suggests his treatment of New York is related to their lawsuits aimed at his businesses/personal conduct.” And in a separate tweet, Cheney posted, “This is actually the precise scenario that House Democrats warned of during the impeachment trial: What if Trump conditioned federal aid to a state on a personal political demand?” Continue reading.

Anything a president does to stay in power is in the national interest, Dershowitz argues.

New York Times logoAlan Dershowitz, one of President Trump’s impeachment lawyers, pushed an extraordinarily expansive view of executive power during his trial on Wednesday, arguing that any action taken by the president to help his own re-election is, by definition, in the public interest.

“If the president does something that he thinks will help him get elected, in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment,” said Mr. Dershowitz, a celebrity lawyer and constitutional law professor.

The assertion amounted to an argument that even if all of Democrats’ impeachment allegations are true — that Mr. Trump was, in fact, seeking election advantage when he demanded that Ukraine investigate his political opponents — it would still be appropriate. Continue reading.

John Roberts comes face to face with the mess he made

Washington Post logoThere is justice in John Roberts being forced to preside silently over the impeachment trial of President Trump, hour after hour, day after tedious day.

The chief justice of the United States, as presiding officer, doesn’t speak often, and when he does the words are usually scripted and perfunctory:

“The Senate will convene as a court of impeachment.” Continue reading.

Democrats accuse White House of wrongly concealing evidence about Pence that supports the impeachment case

AlterNet logoDemocratic lawmakers accused the White House of improperly classifying a piece of impeachment evidence related to Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday.

That evidence, from Pence aide Jennifer Williams, has been the subject of a dispute between the House impeachment investigators and the vice president. House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff has said that “there is no legitimate basis for the Office of Vice President to assert that the information” relating to a Sept. 18 call Pence had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should be classified, but it remains undisclosed to the public.

As I explained in December:

Though the vice president’s office, along with the rest of the administration, has stonewalled the impeachment inquiry’s requests for documents, Schiff’s committee obtained information about the Sept. 18 call through Jennifer Williams, a Pence aide who has already testified. Initially, Schiff explained, Williams testified about Pence’s call and did not assert that any part of it was classified. When she testified publicly, however, she said Pence’s office had since determined that the call was classified. She later sent the committee a “supplemental submission” after reviewing “materials” that refreshed her memory about the call — and it’s that supplemental submission that Schiff would like to see declassified.

Continue reading.

Trump’s Impeachment Team Takes Shape as Trial Looms

New York Times logoThe basic configuration of the president’s defense team has been established, but other aspects have yet to be determined.

For weeks, President Trump’s advisers have been preparing for the eventuality of an impeachment trial in the Senate, a process that could begin as soon as Wednesday.

Some aspects of how Mr. Trump’s team will approach the trial have yet to be determined, including whether it will seek witnesses and how much time it will ask for to argue its case. But the basic configuration of the team defending the television-savvy president in a made-for-TV congressional event has been established.

The two constants will be Pat A. Cipollone, the White House counsel, and Jay Sekulow, who has been Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer since 2017. Both are expected to have speaking roles during the trial. Continue reading.

Trump privately admits he killed Suleimani ‘under pressure’ from upcoming impeachment trial: report

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump privately told associates that his upcoming impeachment trial factored heavily into his decision to kill top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“Trump, after the strike, told associates he was under pressure to deal with Gen. Soleimani from GOP senators he views as important supporters in his coming impeachment trial in the Senate,” associates of the president told the outlet.

The revelation, buried deep into a lengthy piece about the strike, follows a similar report from The New York Times. Continue reading.

GOP moderates side with McConnell over Bolton testimony

Democrats are unlikely to get four Republicans to vote to subpoena John Bolton.

Despite John Bolton’s willingness to testify about the Ukraine scandal, the GOP-controlled Senate has no immediate plans to subpoena him in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial — a win for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the White House.

While Democrats have called for testimony from Trump’s former national security adviser, so far there’s no sign that they will secure support from four Republicans they would need to follow through on their demand.

In their bid for a “fair trial,” Democrats were hoping moderate Republicans like Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah will endorse their efforts to bring in Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to testify at the trial. They also want to subpoena documents related to the Ukraine scandal. Continue reading.

Democrats, Citing White House Emails, Renew Calls for Impeachment Witnesses

New York Times logoWith lawmakers at odds over a trial’s format, impeachment proceedings are in limbo.

Top Democrats on Sunday renewed their demands for witnesses to testify at President Trump’s impeachment trial, citing newly released emails showing that the White House asked officials to keep quiet over the suspension of military aid to Ukraine just 90 minutes after Mr. Trump leaned on that country’s president to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

The emails, released late Friday by the Trump administration to the Center for Public Integrity, shed new light on Mr. Trump’s effort to solicit Ukraine to help him win re-election in 2020, the matter at the heart of the House’s vote on Wednesday to impeach him for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

With the Senate’s Democratic and Republican leaders at odds over the trial’s format, Democrats seized on the emails in an effort to put pressure on Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader. Mr. McConnell, who wants a bare-bones proceeding, has rejected a proposal by his Democratic counterpart, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, to have four top White House officials testify.

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