Even Trump’s lawyers are childish little whiners.
If you are curious about the contours of the arguments in the Senate trial you can see from the briefs that have been filed by both sides what they plan to do. The Democrats will present the evidence of Trump’s corrupt, self-serving abuse of power and obstruction. The Republicans will shriek about “unfairness” and claim the whole thing is “rigged” and a “charade.”
Politico reports:
The lengthy brief filed by Trump’s team suggests Democrats ran a “rigged” impeachment investigation that led to the adoption of the two charges against Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Their arguments largely ignored the growing body of evidence Democrats presented indicating Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate his Democrat rivals, while withholding desperately needed military aid to the beleaguered nation.
Instead, Trump’s lawyers focused on broad, constitutionally questionable claims that the House’s process invalidates the articles of impeachment outright. The most prominent is that the House did not allege a violation of any specific statute.
The Trump lawyers argue the Democrats didn’t present any evidence the president made any link between security assistance and a White House meeting with the new Ukrainian leader. “The facts show that the president was not pressuring anyone to do anything about any investigation,” a source working with the president’s legal team told reporters Monday.
“Congress failed to state any violation of law, whatsoever,” the source added, outlining the forthcoming brief.
Democrats built their case on a transcript of Trump’s July 25 call to Ukraine’s newly elected president, Voodymyr Zelensky, in which he urged the Zelensky to investigate former vice president Joe Biden. The House Intelligence Committee also interviewed 17 witnesses, including some who described deep confusion and chaos inside the administration after Trump ordered the withholding of military aid to Ukraine.
The obstruction charge arose from Trump’s blanket order to his administration to refuse cooperation with the House probe, an order that many of the 17 witnesses defied. Trump also prevented the State Department, Pentagon and White House budget office from sharing documents that could shed light on the arrangements. Several key witnesses, including acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton have refused to cooperate as well.
But it appears Trump’s team plans to sidestep the substance of Democrats’ cases and focus instead on what they claim was a rushed investigation that offered no meaningful chance for Trump to participate. Democrats did offer Trump’s attorneys a chance to present a rebuttal and propose witnesses during the Judiciary Committee’s hearings in December, but the attorneys declined, claiming the process was unfair. Democrats also note that Trump’s allies in Congress had equal access to the hearings to question witnesses and push back on the allegations.
They are going with the Trump tweet defense: scream “it’s a hoax!”, claim it was a perfect phone call and strongarm the GOP Senators behind the scenes. McConnell wants to keep as much of the trial blacked out as he can so that Fox News can interpret the trial in Trump’s favor for the cult. And they want to get it over with as quickly as possible.
In fact, there’s been talk over the week-end that McConnell has a “kill switch” embedded in the procedure:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly is close to finalizing a rule that would allow President Trump’s team to move to dismiss the articles of impeachment in the Senate quickly after some evidence has been presented, as a sort of safety valve in case Democrats try to drag out the trial for weeks.
The discussions came as Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that the trial could extend “to six to eight weeks or even longer” if the Senate decided to hear from additional witnesses — a prospect that could interfere with the imminent presidential primary contests, as Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., likely would get pulled off the campaign trail.
McConnell, R-Ky., wouldn’t be obligated to publicize the final version of his resolution setting the parameters of the impeachment trial until Tuesday, but top Republicans have said they supported affording Trump the opportunity to cut the trial short.
Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, for example, said he would be “very, very surprised” if McConnell’s resolution didn’t include that kind of kill switch.”I am familiar with the resolution as it stood a day or two ago,” Hawley told Axios. “My understanding is that the resolution will give the president’s team the option to either move to judgment or to move to dismiss at a meaningful time.” Trump, Hawley wrote on Twitter after Axios’ article was published, “deserves the right during Senate trial to ask for a verdict or move to dismiss – otherwise trial will become endless circus run by Adam Schiff.”
It will never fail to amaze me how Trump-lovers say things like that with a straight face. Trump is beyond Barnum and Bailey every single day. I mean:
That’s what the GOP is lining up to defend to the death in an impeachment trial by whining and crying and gnashing their teeth that everything is so unfaaaair.