PILOT SPIN
Spin Zone => Spin Zone => Topic started by: Lucifer on December 03, 2019, 11:38:21 AM
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Here's a guy with a JD that happens to know what he's talking about:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/12/impeachment-power-can-be-abused/
It is not a good look for Democrats, in purporting to respond to the president’s abuse of his constitutional power over foreign relations, to abuse the House’s power over impeachment. That, however, is exactly what they are doing in their unseemly zeal to impeach President Trump on a blatantly political deadline.
In a December 1 letter, White House counsel Pat Cipollone notified House Judiciary chairman Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.) that the president will not participate in the committee’s first open hearing on Wednesday, December 4. Ordinarily — not that there’s anything “ordinary” about the potential impeachment of an American president — I’d be inclined to assess this as poor judgment.
After all, the lack of due process has been one of the president’s major complaints since late October, when the House belatedly voted to endorse the impeachment inquiry that Democrats have been conducting for months. Among the fundamental elements of due process is the opportunity to be heard. Having denied this opportunity to the president in Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff’s faux grand-jury phase of the proceedings, Democrats are now inviting the president to participate in the Judiciary Committee phase, where articles of impeachment are soon to be drafted and voted on. The president’s complaints are apt to ring hollow if he carps about the witnesses from the Twitter sidelines while forfeiting the right to question them at the formal hearings.
Abstaining now could also be problematic down the road. Eventually, there will be a Senate impeachment trial. Because the House is now giving the president an opportunity to examine witnesses, Senate Democrats will have a good argument that transcripts from Nadler’s hearings should be admitted as trial evidence — i.e., the president should not be heard to complain since he will have passed up his chance to confront his accusers.
All that said, though, the White House’s position makes sense, at least for the moment.
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Add in another real Constitutional lawyer (not lawyer cum pilot) who sees what this charade is all about:
During his testimony, Turley also took issue with Democrats’ “boundless” definition of bribery and their insistence that Trump’s decision to fight congressional subpoenas in the courts amounts to an abuse of power.
“President Trump has gone … to the courts. He’s allowed to do that — we have three branches, not two,” Turley said. “If you impeach a president, if you make a high crime and misdemeanor out of going to the courts, it is an abuse of power. It’s your abuse of power. You are doing precisely what you’re criticizing the president for doing.”
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/turley-calls-current-case-for-impeachment-woefully-inadequate-but-admits-trump-ukraine-call-was-anything-but-perfect/