43.9 F
Thousand Oaks

Senate Impeachment Trial a Sham

Letter to the Editor

The Senate impeachment trial of Trump was an incredible embarrassment for our country. The only thing that was proven was that the current occupant of the oval office does indeed appear to be above the law. It also showed that Senate Republicans care more about politics than they care about the integrity of our elections. Truly shocking.

The two articles of impeachment against Trump from the House of Representatives should have been a slam dunk. By not cooperating with the House investigation into his wrongdoing, Trump was clearly guilty of obstructing Congress. There is really no other way to interpret his behavior. The other article of impeachment about abuse of power was even more serious. Soliciting the assistance of a foreign government to smear the reputation of a political rival is beyond the pale. This is the type of behavior we would expect from a tin-pot dictator, not an American President.

Now the Senate majority have proven themselves complicit in Trump’s high crimes and misdemeanors. Hopefully the Senate Republicans will pay dearly at the ballot box for their treachery toward the American people and the Constitution. Their refusal to call witnesses can only be described as a cover-up. What were they afraid of? Why didn’t they want to hear from John Bolton? If Trump was innocent, why on earth would they NOT want Bolton to testify and clear things up?

This whole sham of a Senate trial stinks to high heaven. The Republican Senators clearly had their minds made up before the trial even started. If they truly had no intention of actually listening to arguments and hearing testimony from witnesses, they should have just saved the American people a lot of wasted time and just voted for acquittal on Day 1 of the trial. Why even go through the motions of a trial under these circumstances?

Perhaps the Republicans prolonged their pre-decided outcome just to keep Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren away from Iowa. Or maybe the simpler reason was that they just wanted to pretend to hold a fair trial in order to keep up appearances. Well, no one was fooled. Anyone watching could tell it was a complete sham and totally political in its outcome.

The good news is that the Senate Republicans have now hitched their wagon openly to Trump, so when he goes down, they will go down with him. The American people won’t tolerate a cover-up of this magnitude.

Adam Harris, Thousand Oaks

1 COMMENT

  1. With reference to Adam Harris’ letter about the so-called Senate trial being a sham.

    It amazes me that educated people would rant when they demonstrate who little they know. The most disturbing element of such ignorance is that they vote accordingly. Truth be damned. It would server Mr. Harris very well to first verify what the liberal media spouts forth is actually true. Because of their agenda, it likely is not.

    For example, the House and Senate have separate and distinct functions when it comes to the impeachment and removal of a president. The House’s function is to indict the president according to very strict and well-defined principles.

    To arrive at an indictment, the House cross-examines witnesses, consider evidence and gives both parties a chance to rebut or present counter evidence, so on, until it is able to formulate articles that contain the high crimes and misdemeanors justifying the removal of the president.

    For the very purpose to prevent that partisan activism drives the impeachment, the Senate has to hold a trial within the four corners of the Articles of Impeachment, and nothing else. That is, did the House reach the standard of a legitimate impeachment that warrants removal of the president, or not.

    If the Articles contain insufficient legal, constitutional, or factual bases for impeachment, the Senate may dismiss the Articles without a trial. And that would be the end of it.

    The Senate may consider the evidence that the House produced to justify its Articles and vote them insufficient or sufficient to justify impeachment. If the Senate concludes that the Articles are insufficient, that’s the end of it.

    The Senate has to remain within the four corners of the Articles to ensure that the jurisdiction of the House is not violated, which means they cannot consider impeachable offenses all over again, which the House claims to have done satisfactorily. And the Senate did and found that the Articles against President Trump are not impeachable offenses, and acquitted him, as they should have done.

    Obstruction and abuse of power are not impeachable offenses. The three branches of government are charged with the duty to constantly obstruct one another from violating the constitution. Only when abuse of power result in corruption or bribes does it rise to the level of an impeachable offense. It did not.

    What is worrisome, especially for those of us who rant and rave that the Senate’s trial was a sham, is the ignorance of the sham that the House committed and entered into its Articles. The President was not allowed to rebut any of the accusations, question testimony or accusers, and even have access to critical evidence, which supposedly formed the basis of the Articles. No due process.

    The sham is not with the Senate. It squarely rests on the Democratic Party, whose members who are quilty of such blatant malpractice of the law, should be disbarred and dismissed from Congress.

    It is cleara that the latter is rather the case when one considers the Speaker’s comment about the President’s acquittal, that he will “forever” bear the stain of impeachment.

    Judging by the amateurish and corrupted practice of law and justice during the compilation of the Articles, and that the Articles’ are void of any impeachable offense, it rather points to a deliberate failure at the Senate, just to preserve an asterisk against the name of Donald J. Trump.

    In that they succeeded, but that asterisk will forever have an asterisk of its own: False Democrat Impeachment.

Comments are closed.

Related

Latest