Impeachment Today: House Vote Would Prevent Future Pardon
Some of the pundit class believe things are moving too fast. Republicans are still whining about the ‘process,’ even as they seek to undermine it at every turn. House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff isn’t having any of this foolishness.
A draft of the report based on testimony from 17 witnesses is all but done, pending a review by committee members. It does not include documents from the State Department and National Security Council either of those sources, as the White House refused to comply with subpoenas.
The House Intelligence Committee report is expected to make the case that Trump abused his power and violated his oath of office by withholding roughly $400 million in congressionally approved military aid earmarked for Ukraine in exchange for investigations of Joe Biden, Biden’s son Hunter and Hunter’s role on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas conglomerate.
The document is also likely to contain allegations that Trump obstructed Congress, another impeachable offense. And some are making the argument for additional articles of impeachment including, for example, the instances of obstruction detailed in the Mueller report.
A vote, destined to split along party lines, will be taken on Tuesday. The Intelligence Committee report will not include articles of impeachment, but any articles emerging from the Judiciary Committee will likely be based on the information contained within, along with suggestions coming from the Foreign Affairs and Oversight Committees.
From Court House News:
The rat-a-tat of the inquiry continues Wednesday when the House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to meet for a public hearing on the historical and constitutional bases of impeachment, according to a notice issued by committee chairman Jerry Nadler last week.
The hearing will explore the framers’ intent for impeachment as well as the meaning behind terms such as “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
The White House has informed Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler via a scathing 5-page letter that Trump’s lawyers will not be participating in Wednesday’s questioning of the witness panel.
From Politico:
It’s an indication that Trump has listened to his allies who have argued that the impeachment process established by House Democrats is illegitimate and partisan. “An invitation to an academic discussion with law professors does not begin to provide the president with any semblance of a fair process,” White House Counsel Pat Cipollone wrote to Nadler. Notably, Cipollone left the door open to participating in future Judiciary hearings.
Republicans are also calling on Democrats to expand the list of witnesses so that there is an equal number favorable to both perspectives. And Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, wants to haul in Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff as a witness.
https://twitter.com/samstein/status/1201496872105467904?s=20
Ultimately, impeachment is a political process, not the criminal court type of deal Republicans are making it out to be.
Democrats remain united and, despite claims to the contrary from the White House, the public narrowly favors impeachment. Polling taken at this stage in the process during the proceedings against Clinton and Nixon did not show support impeaching for those presidents.
Republicans are toughing it out --at least publicly-- seemingly willing to stake their political survival and personal credibility on a president who has twice betrayed our own national security to obtain overseas help in his campaigns.
In the likely case that the Senate refuses to convict on the articles of impeachment, it’s still a process worth going through, as Robert Reich points out in an op ed at The Guardian: (Emphasis mine)
Regardless of whether a sitting president can be indicted and convicted on such criminal charges, Trump will become liable to them at some point. But could he be pardoned, as Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon 45 years ago?
Article II, section 2 of the constitution gives a president the power to pardon anyone who has been convicted of offenses against the United States, with one exception: “in Cases of Impeachment.”
If Trump is impeached by the House, he can never be pardoned for these crimes. He cannot pardon himself (it’s dubious that a president has this self-pardoning power in any event), and he cannot be pardoned by a future president.
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There’s more bad news coming the President’s way. Expect him to try and spin the Justice Department’s Inspector General report examining aspects of the Russia investigation, but it’s going to be an uphill battle.
From the New York Times:
The Justice Department’s inspector general found no evidence that the F.B.I. attempted to place undercover agents or informants inside Donald J. Trump’s campaign in 2016 as agents investigated whether his associates conspired with Russia's election interference operation, people familiar with a draft of the inspector general’s report said.
The determination by the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, is expected to be a key finding in his highly anticipated report due out on Dec. 9 examining aspects of the Russia investigation. The finding also contradicts some of the most inflammatory accusations hurled by Mr. Trump and his supporters, who alleged not only that F.B.I. officials spied on the Trump campaign but also at one point that former President Barack Obama had ordered Mr. Trump’s phones tapped. The startling accusation generated headlines but Mr. Trump never backed it up.
The finding is one of several by Mr. Horowitz that undercuts conservatives’ claims that the F.B.I. acted improperly in investigating several Trump associates starting in 2016. He also found that F.B.I. leaders did not take politically motivated actions in pursuing a secret wiretap on a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page — eavesdropping that Mr. Trump’s allies have long decried as politically motivated.
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Lisa Page, the FBI lawyer who’s served as Trump’s punching bag in his fantasy versions of how he was persecuted, has emerged from the shadows, saying ‘enough, already.’
Molly Jong-Fast’s interview at The Daily Beast is a must-read story:
For the nearly two years since her name first made the papers, she’s been publicly silent (she did have a closed-door interview with House members in July 2018). I asked her why she was willing to talk now. “Honestly, his demeaning fake orgasm was really the straw that broke the camel’s back,” she says. The president called out her name as he acted out an orgasm in front of thousands of people at a Minneapolis rally on Oct. 11.
That was the moment Page decided she had to speak up. “I had stayed quiet for years hoping it would fade away, but instead it got worse,” she says. “It had been so hard not to defend myself, to let people who hate me control the narrative. I decided to take my power back.”
She is also about to be back in the news cycle in a big way. On Dec. 9, the Justice Department inspector general report into Trump’s charges that the FBI spied on his 2016 campaign will come out. Leaked press accounts indicate the report will exonerate Page of the allegation that she acted unprofessionally or showed bias against Trump.
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Finally, for today’s column, a look at what reality is like in today’s Republican legislative circles.
GOP Senator Johnny Isakson is retiring. He’s the chair of the Senate Ethics Committee. And the party’s leadership hasn’t found a Republican willing to take his place.
From The Hill:
Several Republicans who currently oversee other committees also indicated they had no interest in taking on Ethics.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said he would rather undergo a dental procedure.
“Are you kidding? Are you kidding? I’d rather have a root canal,” he said.
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Lest we forget the root of our discontent:
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1201460766475505664?s=20
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