Peach Mint Highlights: Friday Jan 31 2020: page 3

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(page 1 >>7980780, page 2 >>7981481)

House Manager Schiff seeks to rebut the POTUS team:

Schiff:

A trial wo/witnesses is simply not a trial.

Sekulow said, "House investigates and Senate deliberates": no, Senate shall "try"--not just deliberate.

Witnesses are relevant for both Articles.

You will see the motive for redactions (etc). You will see how fallacious the argument for exec privilege is. Cover-up.

"We all understand just what this President did." [rather bizarre]

"He has a God-given right to abuse his power and there's nothing you can do about it." [attributes this reasoning to Dershowitz]

[goes back to making the analogy of regular trial as being like an impeachment trial]

[asserts House team was prepped for trial; WH team not prepped for trial]

[starts getting repetitive as this point........]

Bolton: why did he save information for the book [rather than testify]?

Why would he testify before the Senate but not the House?

Argument that the House didn't fight harder to "overcome our stonewalling"--rejects it, bad faith.

Ridicules idea that House was slap-dash.

They also say Chief Justice cannot decide issues of executive privilege.

Senate rules allow the presiding officer [usually the VP, yes???] to make judgments on "issues of evidence, materiality and privilege."

"We don't need to go up and down the courts; we have a perfectly good judge right here."

We propose just to take a week [for witnesses].

Proper claim of privilege vs trying to hide fraud. They are afraid the Chief Justice will be fair.

He is empowered to do this by your rules. You can say, "we will allow the Chief Justice to make those decisions."

Re 13 witnesses "seen." Not live testimony in the Senate. You we're there for live testimony in the House.

POTUS team WAS eligible to call/cross examine witnesses in House Jud. Cmte. [Is he talking just about senior officials for whom exec privilege was invoked?].....

[Argues that POTUS team is criticizing the Senate, judging it based on its decision: "How dare they!"].....

"There is a storm blowing through this Capitol. Its winds are strong and they move us in uncertain and dangerous directions."

We need an anchor. "If we have faith that the ship of state can survive the truth, this storm shall pass." 1:34 PST

SENATE LEADER CAUCUS