“Shall the man who has practiced corruption, and by that means procured his appointment in the first instance, be suffered to escape punishment by repeating his guilt?” – George Mason, Founding Father

By Glen Reaux

Update of previous article

On Wednesday night, December 11, 2019 Donald J. Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives.  For both Trump and the Republican Party it is a day that will go down in infamy.  For President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, it was a reference to the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.  For Republicans,  it was the day they all feared.  It was the beginning of the end for Trumpism and their new version of America, Trump Land.  Why so?  Because the House Impeached Trump and Pelosi Withheld Articles of Impeachment.  Although, Mitch McConnell and his merry band of Trump minions in the Senate knew that impeachment could not be stopped, they anticipated derailing the trial in the Senate.  But, “Trumpoid Fever” has not only destroyed the self-proclaimed  “Big Brain” of their fearless leader, it has done the same to McConnell and Graham.  Such destruction of Republican “gray matter” is evidenced by their hubris.  Hubris that has driven them so mad that McConnell admitted before the entire world that he was coordinating the trial with the White House and that is not and will not be a fair and impartial jurist. In a press conference he literally declared party before country and oath of office.  In response, Nancy Pelosi withheld the Articles of Impeachment from the Senate until the agreed to allow witnesses and provide some guarantees of impartiality which could end in a fair trial and not have a sham perpetrated upon the American people.  Essentially, this brilliant move by Pelosi could have taken the power from the Senate and placed it back in the hands of the American voters which is who the Senate is supposed to represent.

Prior to Wednesday, on Tuesday morning, December 17, 2019, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell essentially said to the world, the country and his constituents in the State of  Kentucky that, there will not be an impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump.  Although he did not use those exact words, in a speech on the Senate floor, McConnell stated that he would not be allowing House Democrats to provide any witnesses during the impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump.  Therefore, his actions dictate the obvious.  That being, the impeachment trial of President Trump will be rigged to prevent a conviction.  “Mitch McConnell Declares No Witnesses No Impeachment Trial Part I” exposes this fact and the Republican reasoning that supports this unprecedented action.  Simply put, if a trial is rigged to provide a predetermined outcome it is not a trial by any stretch of the imagination.  The definition of a trial is:

Trial – a formal examination of evidence before a judge, and typically before a jury, in order to decide guilt in a case of criminal or civil proceedings.

Without allowing for witnesses to appear in a trial of the president, a formal examination of the evidence is not possible.  By definition, this would not be a trial.  This means that, the impeachment proceeding held in the Senate would not be in compliance with the constitution.  Not having the evidence to support a conviction, Republicans feel that they would be justified in finding President Trump not guilty of impeachable offenses thus allowing him to remain in office.  Simply put, McConnell’s refusal to allow witness testimony means no impeachment trial!  He has determined in advance of the presentation of evidence that the trial will be rigged in favor of the president to prevent a guilty verdict and his removal from office.  This position is anti-constitutional and a further of his oath of office.  The U.S. Constitution, Article 1 Section 3 Clauses 6 and 7^{1} deals with the Senate’s responsibilities in an impeachment trial:

Article 1 Section 3

Clause 6 – The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two-thirds of the Members present.

Clause 7 – Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States; but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

The Senate, based upon Article 1 Section 3 Clause 6 of the Constitution, will hold a trial of impeachment.  McConnell is the Senate Majority Leader and a Republican.   The Articles of Impeachment were drafted by a Democratic Party-controlled House of Representatives.  The Democratic Party in the Senate is represented by Minority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer of New York.

On December 15^th, Senator Schumer sent a letter to McConnell detailing that the Democrats would like to use the bipartisan procedures which set precedents in the Clinton impeachment trial of 1999 as exhibited in the excerpt below:

Schumer’s letter also explained what witnesses Democrats would like to testify at the President’s trial.  The list includes individuals that President Trump prohibited from testifying in the House Impeachment Investigation who have direct knowledge of and possibly participated in the President’s crimes.  This list includes Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Senior Advisor to the Acting Chief of Staff Robert Blair, Michael Duffy, Associate Director for National Security, Office of Management and Budget and Former National Security Adviser John Bolton.  Bolton referred to the President’s bribery scheme as a drug deal.  The letter also proposes that the Senate subpoena document relevant to the impeachment trial that Trump blocked from being turned over by the appropriate departments.

The official letter submitted to Mitch McConnell is provided below.

Further proof that Mitch McConnell has declared that there will be no impeachment trial is provided in an interview that McConnell gave to Fox News.  In the interview, McConnell made the following three statements:

1. “Everything I do during this, I’m coordinating with White House Counsel. There will be no difference between the President’s position and our position as to how to handle this,”
2. “The president’s counsel may or may not decide they want to have witnesses. The case is so darn weak coming over from the House,”
3. “I’m going to take my cues from the president’s lawyers. But yes, if you know you have the votes, you’ve listened to the arguments on both sides and believe the case is so slim, so weak that you have the votes to end it, that might be what the president’s lawyers would prefer,”

Mitch McConnell’s declarations about the Senate impeachment trial violates the will of the people and the constitutional guarantee right to due process.  The American people have spoken and in an ABC News/Washington Post poll released on the morning of Tuesday, December 17^th, 71% of Americans want to see the witnesses requested by Chuck Schumer testify in the impeachment trial.  Also, 64% of all Republicans and 62% of Independents in the country want to see the witnesses testify.

The poll also shows that more Americans support the impeachment and removal from office of Trump that did Bill Clinton.

In addition, more Americans believe that Trump acted improperly in Ukraine and that he obstructed Congress.

A recent Fox News poll provided the following data on how Americans feel about Impeaching Trump, abuse of power, bribery and obstruction of congress.

The American axiom and belief coined by President Abraham Lincoln “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” has essentially been declared extinct and inconsequential by the actions of Mitch McConnell.   To justify his actions, McConnell has cited that the president had not committed any criminal offenses.  He fails to acknowledge that at the time that the founding fathers created the constitution, there were no federal criminal statutes.  That is one of the reasons why the drafters of the constitution used the terms “high crimes and misdemeanors.”  McConnell also parroted the president’s assertions that the Democrats launched a propaganda campaign claiming that Trump committed bribery and extortion.  And, since they could not prove the crimes of bribery and extortion, Congress chose abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

In contradiction to this assertion by Trump, McConnell and a bevy of other Republican parrots, on December 16^th, the House released its 658 page, Judiciary Report on the Impeachment of Donald J. Trump.  The report list several crimes of the president which includes constitutional bribery, criminal bribery, which have been included in the impeachment article of abuse of power.^[2]  Also included in the abuse of power article is the federal statutory crime of Honest Services Fraud.^{3}

Norman Ornstein is a conservative Republican, a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a contributing editor for the Atlantic.  Out of concern for the recent developments in the impeachment proceedings and of the consequences if Trump were not to be removed from office recently sounded this alarm.  The alarm deals with the corruption of the Justice Department by the president.

In light of the corruption of the Justice Department by the president and the refusal by Republicans to honor their oaths of office, American citizens, must ask and answer the following questions:

1. If the president did nothing wrong, why is he preventing witnesses from testifying?
2. If the president did nothing wrong, why didn’t he present a defense during the investigation?
3. If the president did nothing wrong, why is McConnell refusing to let witnesses testify?

Article 1 Section 3 Clause 6 refers to Senators taking an oath of affirmation.  The oath of affirmation is a commitment to look at and evaluate the evidence impartially, fair and without political or partisan bias.  It is an oath that Mitch McConnell admitted that he will violate during a press conference on the evening of December 17, 2019.  One last consideration, if due process is being guaranteed and the will of the people is being represented, why has Mitch McConnell determined that a Senate trial will not result in the president being removed from office?  These two videos should be extremely alarming because they are proof that Mitch McConnell, in his own words has sworn to obstruct justice and deny Americans their constitutional right to free and fair elections which is what will happen if Trump is not removed from office.

https://www.gofundme.com/xplicit-news

Links and Documentation

1. Article 1 Section 3: https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-3/clause-6%E2%80%937
2. Bribery Pages 126-120: Judiciary Report on the Impeachment of Donald J. Trump pdf
3. Honest Services Fraud Page 132: Judiciary Report on the Impeachment of Donald J. Trump pdf

Copyright © 2019, Glen Reaux, all rights reserved