{"id":48524,"date":"2021-02-22T08:59:08","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T08:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=133354"},"modified":"2021-02-22T08:59:08","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T08:59:08","slug":"why-didnt-speaker-pelosi-want-witnesses-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/22\/why-didnt-speaker-pelosi-want-witnesses-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Didn\u2019t\u00a0Speaker Pelosi Want Witnesses?"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n
\"\"

Photograph Source: Office of Public Affairs – CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

On\u00a0the morning of February 13, 2021, just before the Senate impeachment\u00a0trial abruptly ended\u00a0with Trump\u2019s acquittal, Constitutional law\u00a0specialist Bruce Fein and I sent the following plea to\u00a0House Speaker\u00a0Nancy Pelosi:<\/p>\n

More\u00a0than 240 years of heroic sacrifices by our forebearers to plant the\u00a0seeds of a government of\u00a0the people, by the people, for the people\u00a0are not being furthered by your shortsighted eagerness\u00a0for an\u00a0abbreviated gravely historic second impeachment trial of former\u00a0President Donald Trump.\u00a0The trial has thus been shorn of \u201csmoking\u00a0gun\u201d witnesses and full exposure of his daily wrecking\u00a0ball against\u00a0the Constitution rooted in Mr. Trump\u2019s unprecedented, brazenly\u00a0monarchical\u00a0pronouncement on July 23, 2019, \u201cThen I have Article 2,\u00a0where I have the right to do anything I\u00a0want as president.\u201d Mr. Trump\u00a0was as determined as his words.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0usurped the congressional power to tax and spend.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0defied hundreds of congressional subpoenas and demands for testimony\u00a0or information to\u00a0disable oversight and to substitute government\u00a0secrecy for transparency.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0turned the White House into a crime scene with serial violations of\u00a0the Hatch Act.<\/p>\n

According\u00a0to former national security advisor John Bolton, fortified by the\u00a0Mueller Report, he\u00a0made obstruction of justice \u201ca way of life\u201d at the\u00a0White House.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0appointed principal officers of the United States without Senate\u00a0confirmation in violation of the\u00a0Appointments Clause.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0transgressed both the letter and spirit of the Foreign and Domestic\u00a0Emoluments Clauses.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0flouted his obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully\u00a0executed by dismantling\u00a0enforcement of environmental, safety,\u00a0consumer protection, and labor laws.<\/p>\n

January\u00a06, 2021 was but the predictable culmination of Mr. Trump\u2019s unalloyed\u00a0contempt for the\u00a0Constitution and rule of law. If Article 2 crowns\u00a0the president with limitless power, then to incite\u00a0the use of force\u00a0and violence against the legislative branch of government to prevent\u00a0the Vice\u00a0President from counting state-certified electoral votes,\u00a0falls squarely within his vast dictatorial\u00a0domain.<\/p>\n

We\u00a0submit you will be committing a dereliction of constitutional duty if\u00a0you do not immediately\u00a0make the demand to subpoena witnesses in the\u00a0pending second impeachment trial.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0subpoenas should be issued to at least the following: Donald Trump,\u00a0Mike Pence, William\u00a0Barr, John Bolton, Christopher Krebs, Brad\u00a0Raffensperger, Jeffrey Rosen, Rudy Giuliani, Jeffrey\u00a0Clark, and Pak\u00a0Byung-Jin (B.J. Pak).<\/p>\n

Your\u00a0immediate call for witnesses critical to fortifying the impeachment\u00a0evidence will be the\u00a0definitive test of your resolve to convict\u00a0Donald J. Trump and your understanding of the serious\u00a0and gravity of\u00a0the impeachment charges. A trial without key witnesses possessed of\u00a0crucial\u00a0incriminating testimony diminishes the seriousness of the\u00a0proceedings and the huge stakes for\u00a0the future of the American\u00a0Republic.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0haunting question that history will raise will be this: Why didn\u2019t\u00a0Speaker Pelosi call the\u00a0witnesses?<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Senate resumed its trial on Saturday, February 13th at 10:00 am.\u00a0Soon, came the revelation\u00a0of an exchange between Representative Jaime\u00a0Herrera Beutler\u2019s (R-WA) on January 6th\u00a0with\u00a0House\u00a0Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA), regarding his\u00a0telephone conversation\u00a0with Donald Trump during the storming of\u00a0Congress. What followed was a call for witnesses by a\u00a0Senate vote of\u00a055-45. Eureka! The window for Republican witnesses previously\u00a0rejected by\u00a0Democratic House Managers was reopened. There was another\u00a0chance to overcome Speaker\u00a0Pelosi\u2019s desire for a quick trial without\u00a0witnesses.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then\u00a0came another reversal pressed by President Joe Biden and Senate\u00a0Majority Leader Chuck\u00a0Schumer (D-NY). Democratic leaders told the\u00a0House managers to huddle privately with Trump\u2019s\u00a0defense lawyers to\u00a0strike a deal. They did. They would place a mere statement from Rep.\u00a0Beutler\u00a0into the trial record and call no witnesses. The Republicans\u00a0couldn\u2019t have been more delighted,\u00a0knowing that the Democratic\u00a0leadership wanted the trial over that day before Congress went on a\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0week-long vacation.<\/p>\n

Before\u00a0the deal, Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) predicted on NPR that there would\u00a0be a call for\u00a0witnesses, requiring a deferral of the trial for two\u00a0weeks. How mistaken he was about his Party\u2019s\u00a0defeatism and rejection\u00a0of going forward with a full hand.<\/p>\n

They\u00a0could have added to their single impeachment Article of inciting an\u00a0insurrection, two more\u00a0Articles \u2013 intimidating Mike Pence and others\u00a0plus Trump\u2019s refusal to call back the attackers\u00a0during their riot.\u00a0Those three Articles would have made for a more powerful case against\u00a0Trump\u2019s\u00a0defense attorneys, in the opinion of former federal judge\u00a0Michael McConnell.<\/p>\n

An\u00a0even stronger impeachment and one deterring future wannabe Trumps was\u00a0to pair Trump\u2019s\u00a0physical\u00a0attack on the Capitol with\u00a0Trump\u2019s four-year\u00a0institutional\u00a0attack on the\u00a0Congress with his\u00a0constant usurpation of the legislative branch\u2019s\u00a0constitutional authority (some noted above).<\/p>\n

For\u00a0reasons yet to be divulged, the Democrats, as they did with the first\u00a0impeachment of Trump,\u00a0were unwilling to use the full evidence\u00a0subpoena powers they possess. Trump can now run\u00a0again, vitiating the\u00a0rule of law and debasing our democratic institutions.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0Republican strategist Kevin Philips noted years ago, The Republicans\u00a0go for the jugular while\u00a0the Democrats go for the capillaries.<\/p>\n

The post Why Didn\u2019t\u00a0Speaker Pelosi Want Witnesses?<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On\u00a0the morning of February 13, 2021, just before the Senate impeachment\u00a0trial abruptly ended\u00a0with Trump\u2019s acquittal, Constitutional law\u00a0specialist Bruce Fein and I sent the following plea to\u00a0House Speaker\u00a0Nancy Pelosi: More\u00a0than 240 years of heroic sacrifices by our forebearers to plant the\u00a0seeds of a government of\u00a0the people, by the people, for the people\u00a0are not being furthered by More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Why Didn\u2019t\u00a0Speaker Pelosi Want Witnesses?<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48524"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49165,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48524\/revisions\/49165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}