Friday, December 13, 2019

#Impeachment: A Fair Trial?

A couple of items related to #impeachment from @SteveVladeck on Twitter:

"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. ... Power is not a means, it is an end. ... The object of power is power. ... There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party."

— 1984

The oath that each Senator will take at the trial:

“I solemnly swear ... that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald J. Trump, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: So help me God.” (via Lawfare lawyer Benjamin Wittes).

So, when the judges (as such) are working with the defendant (as it were) to conduct the trial, how is that "impartial justice?" In my 40 years as a lawyer, I've never encountered this type of proceeding. Of course, it is unique, neither fish (civil) nor fowl (criminal) in nature, but still, I don't read that the oath allows for this level of collusion--the aptest word, no?--between the impeached president and those who will try him.

In the Stalin era, the Soviets conducted "show trials," that were farcical spectacles that supposedly legitimated the judicial murder of a defendant or, if so "lucky," confinement to the Gulag in Siberia. In the present impeachment (if the House so votes), McConnell is suggesting a "no trial." So why bother if an acquittal is a foreordained conclusion, right? (NO! Not right at all!) The president has no defense and has kept the most knowledgeable witnesses from testifying. But Trump wants a show trial--the man can resist a platform and the opportunity to fire-up the base. But McConnell is much smarter than Trump and knows that the optics of such a display could prove fatal to their venture. A real trial would mean examining the evidence and opening the possibility that the American people might tune-in to what Trump did and how he operates. (Although I know, many just don't care.)



Posted by at
Labels: ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)