Senate Scam Impeachment Trial

Enemy of Justice

Nancy Pelosi will be passing the impeachment articles on to the Senate the week of January 13th.  Shortly after that, Mitch McConnell will begin the Senate trial to decide the status of Trump's presidency.  

The fate of our Democratic Republic depends on the outcome of the Senate impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump. 

Senator McConnell said that he will not be an impartial juror and will coordinate every step of the Senate trial with the White House and Trump.  Before the Senate trial even starts, Mitch McConnell, has publicly stated that Donald J. Trump will be acquitted and not be removed from office.

 McConnell says this, not because he believes Trump is innocent, but because he and the GOP Senators are rigging the trial to allow a guilty President to go unpunished and continue his abuse of power.  The GOP will ignore their oath of office and the oath they will take before the trial to be impartial jurors.  If there could be a definition of a treasonous party without there being a war, the GOP would exemplify it.

The prosecutors of the Senate trial are the House members who are chosen as "case managers."  At this time it is unclear who these people will be, but it is fairly certain that  Adam Schiff, House Intelligence Committee chair and Jerry Nadler, Judiciary Committee chair will be among them.   

Besides every Republican member of the Senate, Trump will have White House lawyers defending him.  There is rumor that Alan Dershowitz may also be on Trump's legal team.

It's possible that the Republicans may vote to dismiss the impeachment even before a trial commences.  In the case of a Senate impeachment trial, only a simple majority would be needed to eliminate the impeachment proceedings.  Although the expected outcome of dismissal would be the same as a scam trial, it may be too arrogant or at least unwise for the GOP to eliminate the trial altogether.  There is the smallest chance that a few Republicans would vote against dismissing. With a dismissal, Republicans would not have a chance to cloud the issue of Trump's guilt and help him appear innocent to confuse American voters.

As the trial starts, the Senate's sergeant-at-arms will proclaim that all persons are to remain silent, on pain of imprisonment, while the House is exhibiting to the Senate the articles of impeachment. 

The trial will be overseen by Chief Justice John Roberts.  With the Republicans so openly partisan and standing steadfastly by their guilty president, John Roberts' role may be moot.  The Chief Justice will be able to rule on questions about evidence, however, his decision can be overridden by a simple majority vote in the Senate.  Unless the Democrats can convince four or more Republican Senators to vote with them, it is likely that all votes will follow the Republican game plan and favor Trump.  

McConnell said that he does not want any witnesses to be heard, however, Republican Senator Susan Collins has publicly announced that she is working with a small contingent of Republicans to ensure that witnesses can be heard.  Based on Collins' previous actions it is fairly certain that she will walk back those words if a vote on witnesses is required, but we shall see.

It would take a super majority of sixty-seven votes to convict and remove Donald Trump from office. Anything short of that leads to an acquittal.  That verdict would be final and no appeals would be allowed.

The outcome is certain.  Donald Trump will be allowed to continue his pursuit of the destruction of our Constitution and democratic republic.  

Perhaps the GOP believes Donald Trump will support their re-election, helping to maintain their Republican Senate majority.  But they miss the most important point.  Trump is guilty of violating our Constitution and is abusing Presidential power.  The GOP has lost its sense of justice and its ability to do what is right for the country.  Some could argue that the GOP lost those things many years ago, but it has become worse with Trump.  

The best result of the trial we could expect is that it could generate significant controversy around the actions of the GOP in excusing Trump's violation of our Constitution.  It may lead to more active participation by more Americans in peaceful demonstrations against autocracy.  It may cause more Americans to vote against the GOP and Donald Trump in upcoming elections. Let's hope the GOP loses their Senate majority and loses the Presidency in 2020.

The GOP will regret the day that they helped create the first American dictator.