@amuse
IMPEACHMENT TRIAL THREAD:
Democrats have been burning the midnight oil discussing what sort of defense they will allow Trump's legal team to present. Contrary to all traditions of jurisprudence Democrats will serve as judge, jury, witness, and victim in Trump’s ‘trial’ tomorrow.
2/ The consensus is that the president's guilt is so straightforward witnesses aren't necessary. The worst-case scenario for Democrats would be having Speaker Pelosi testifying under oath about her involvement with security planning. But the Democrats have a problem.
3/ After Trump was impeached in 2019 Rep Jamie Raskin demanded Democrats be allowed to call witnesses saying, “We want witnesses, we need witnesses." Now Raskin is the lead impeachment manager and adamantly rejects Trump's right to call witnesses.
https://www.fox6now.com/news/congressman-impeachment-articles-wont-go-to-senate-until-gop-promises-fair-trial
4/ Raskin fears that if Trump is allowed to call witnesses he'll be able to use his impeachment as a worldwide stage to call the election into question once again and turn the tables on the Democrat's desire to put a nail in the former president's political coffin.
5/ Each one of the current impeachment managers is on the record from 2019 explaining that without impeachment witnesses a fair trial in the senate cannot be held. The arguments were compelling:
https://www.lawfareblog.com/senate-impeachment-trial-call-witnesses-or-concede-facts
6/ Ironically, Republican Senators Susan Collins and Mitt Romney who voted to call witnesses during Trump's first impeachment are now signaling they don't want to give Trump a platform to relitigate the 2020 election by calling witnesses.
7/ To give Democrats some cover Rep Raskin sent the president's lawyer asking Trump to testify during the trial knowing the president's lawyers would refuse the request - this will give Democrats some cover to refuse Trump's witness requests.
7/ Sources tell me that @SenatorLeahy's plan is to refuse to let Trump call any witnesses that might undermine the objective of the trial to prevent Trump from running for office in the future or (perhaps more importantly) prevent any embarrassment for the Democrats.
8/ The impeachment managers are also wary about allowing the president to present video evidence. They're also reluctant to play video of Trump's speech prior to the riot at the Capitol given the fact that he called for peaceful protests.
@SenatorLeahy will likely ban all video.
9/ From a scheduling perspective, tomorrow Trump's lawyers will present his pretrial brief and on Tuesday the House managers will present their pretrial rebuttal brief and the trial will begin.
10/ #KangarooCourt
https://twitter.com/amuse/status/1358558529750249473