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THE VIEW FROM HERE - Lilliputian Adam Schiff did not hold Donald Trump accountable as Schiff’s recent TV ads claim. Rather, in December 2019 when his nation needed him the most, Schiff turned tail and ran. Perhaps, Schiff believes no one will remember how as chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Schiff lacked the moral courage to do his constitutional duty. Most despicable, it was not Donald Trump whom he feared, but the wrath of boss lady, Nancy Pelosi. Since the House first Impeachment of Donald Trump was over four (4) years ago, a review of that impeachment is in order.
What is an Impeachment?
Let’s dispossess ourselves of the false notion that impeachment means to remove someone from office. It does not! Under the US Constitution’s Article II, Section 3, impeachment does not remove the President from office. Impeachment is a two step process; (1) The gathering of evidence and (2) the writing of Articles of Impeachment. The Constitution gives this duty to the House of Representatives. When these two acts are finished, nothing happens unless Articles of Impeachment are sent to the US Senate for a trial.
The Fact Gathering Phase is of Paramount Importance
The first aspect of impeachment, the gathering of evidence, is the most important. It is the same as law enforcement’s gathering evidence. Without facts, the court has to throw out the entire case, after which double jeopardy attaches. If there are some facts, but not enough to convince the jury, the defendant goes free. In fact, prosecutors theoretically must have a good faith believe that the case can be proved before issuing an indictment.
In a Presidential Impeachment as with regular criminal matters, the gathering of sufficient facts is the most crucial phrase. Then House is not supposed to issue Articles of Impeachment (an indictment against the President) without a bona fide belief that there is enough evidence to obtain a conviction in the US Senate. (In reality, local prosecutors constantly indict people whom they know to be innocent, but that is not our focus here.)
The Trier of Fact – The US Senate
Prosecutors have to take into account the jurors. Some jurors require more evidence than others. With Trump’s December 2019 impeachment, the trial would be in the US Senate where GOP Senators would have to vote to convict Trump – as 2/3 guilty verdict would be necessary.
The Political Reality of Obtaining a Conviction in the US Senate
While the facts lay foundation of the impeachment trial, politics determine the outcome. All the Senators have personal stakes in conviction or acquittal, and the aspect which is most important in their votes is how their constituents feel. Politicos will grovel at the feet of the most despicable tyrant to benefit their careers. The feelings of their home state voters, however, are usually most persuasive in determining their votes. The legal community realizes that for the GOP Senators to convict Trump, the Senators must know that their constituents will not retaliate at the next election. The evidence gathering phase of Trump’s 2019 impeachment had to be sufficient to turn the tide of much GOP public opinion against Donald Trump.
Why Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi Did Not Want Trump Convicted
The situation which 99% of the public fails to realize that Speaker Pelosi did not want Trump convicted and removed from office, while the GOP leadership hated Trump and wanted him gone forever. Being craven cowards like most politicos, almost all GOP lacked the moral integrity and love of country to risk their careers to openly support Trump’s conviction. The GOP leadership would let the Dems do it for them.
Nancy Pelosi had other ideas. She thought that Donald Trump’s running amuck in the GOP party was the best thing since sliced bread. Eons before Trump thought of running for President, Pelosi had launched her Identity Politics, demonizing White people. See Harvard’s 2002 Abolish the White Race Along with Obama’s regressive anti-poor White pro Wall Street economics, Pelosi’s agitation against White Supremacists and likening Whites in general to the most vile extremists was a significant factor in getting the Tea Baggers elected to Congress in 2010.
Pelosi’s spiel to the Alt Right was that when the minorities were the majority of voters, the minorities would vote away the Whites and take what was rightfully theirs, e.g., reparations, jobs, positions of authority. Law enforcement told Pelosi not to provoke the Alt Right as they were paranoid, extremely anti-government, and violent. The Alt Right was a law enforcement matter and not a political movement. This advice was apparently the siren song to Pelosi’s megalomania. The more violent the Alt Right, the more she could tie its violence to Whites in general and to White Privilege and White Fragility. A great boon to Pelosi’s obvious plan was the 2011French book The Grand Replacement which said that Muslims would replace White Europeans. Pelosi’s existential threat against American Whites was readily adopted by the US Alt Right as a call to arms where the replacement would be with Blacks rather than Muslims. Thus, the Alt Right fringe criminal element grew into a political movement.
Then, Donald Trump stumbled into this political pot boiler, seeking to enhance his bargaining leverage for this TV shows and other business enterprises with the publicity he’d garner by running for President. In October 2016, Hillary Clinton, a supporter of Pelosi’s Identity Politics, uttered what is likely to be the dumbest word in world history – “Deplorables.” She labeled poor and blue collar White voters in Swing States “a basket of deplorables,” forgetting that angry White people vote with a vengeance. Their rage induced votes swung the electoral college to Trump.
Did Pelosi see “Deplorables” as a Disaster?
Maybe someone somewhere knows Pelosi’s reaction, but it is apparent she soon saw the Trump’s Presidency as wonderful; with a madman in the GOP White House, he would destroy the GOP and hasten the day when a majority of voters would reject the GOP rather than wait for the minorities to become the majority of voters long after her demise. Pelosi could very well have believed that Trump was a heaven sent to ruin the GOP. Her role was to make certain Trump did as much damage as possible to the GOP.
Pelosi Always Opposed Trump’s Removal from Office
Many Dems saw that Trump’s mental instability was lethal danger to the country and advocated his impeachment and removal from office, but that was 100% contrary to Pelosi’s apparent career plans. Her sabotage took several forms. One was the Mueller Investigation which she promised would provide the basis for a Trump impeachment, but she had limited the scope of Mueller’s investigation so that it could not support any impeachment. Mueller’s report was flop.
Since Trump may have committed one impeachable offense each day in office, impeachment pressure unrelenting. Pelosi maneuvered the impeachment hearing away from the House Judiciary Committee where Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD) - perhaps the best US Constitutional scholars in Congress – were very hung-ho impeachment. Instead, Speaker Pelosi sent the crucial evidence gathering phrase of impeachment to the Intelligence Committee where her toadie Adam Schiff was chairman.
The Stellar Witnesses
The nation was shocked, as were Schiff and Pelosi, at the stellar witnesses who appeared day after day. Some of them were:
- Marie Yovanovitch, former the US ambassador to Ukraine During her testimony in front of the Intelligence Committee, Trump tried to intimidate her by defamatory tweets.
- Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the former National Security Council director for European affairs. Born in Ukraine, Col Vindman was particularly charismatic, but the GOP tried to tarnish his reputation as his family had immigrated from Ukraine.
- Fiona Hill former White House’s top Russia security expert
- Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union
- Kurt Volker the former special envoy to Ukraine.
- George Kent Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
- William B. Taylor Jr. acting ambassador to Ukraine
- Michael McKinley Mike Pompeo’s former senior adviser
For more comprehensive account see, The Guardian
Unexpectedly, the testimony before Schiff’s Intelligence Committee was devastating to Trump. It seems Schiff and Pelosi thought that the witnesses from lower level actors in the Trump Administration while excluding big wigs like John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the hearings would not reach a critical mass to result in a guilty vote in the Senate. To the contrary, these day-to-day employees struck a rapport with every day Americans including moderate GOP voters. Not only did these employees know enough to convict, but they were also highly credible as they were not politicos. Even Gordon Sondland, a huge Trump financial supporter, had returned to correct his testimony. The witnesses were testifying at personal jeopardy. Trump’s attempted character assassinations, however, boomeranged. Trump texted against Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch while she was testifying. As a result, even Fox News was beginning to turn against Trump as was GOP voter opinion. When the law professors heard that Pelosi was going to pull the plug on evidence gathering just as it had great momentum, they advised Pelosi not to stop evidence gathering Pelosi cut all evidence gathering, seeing that a few more days of witnesses would sway public opinion enough for the GOP leadership to move against Trump as they had against President Nixon.
Nixonization is the term for the only successful Presidential removal. The leaders for both parties visited the President Nixon to advise that they will vote to convict (with possible criminal prosecutions to follow.) His sole option is to resign. When the President resigns, that pulls the legs from under his most ardent supporters. Nixonization rests upon sufficient public opinion turning against the President. Pelosi saved Trump from that fate. No wonder the GOP leadership hates Pelosi.
Schiff at His Obsequious Toadiness
As chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff could have called more witnesses rather than cave into Pelosi’s political ambitions. After days of courageous public servants’ risking their careers, Schiff turned coward and sold all of them down the river. The law professors were clear – keep going. Schiff stopped! The professors’ warning was well known to Schiff before their public testimony. If the impeachment stops here, there will be no Senate conviction and the nation will be stuck with a madman as President.
After Schiff’s betrayed his Constitutional duty by throwing the impeachment inquiry as if it were the 1919 World Series, Schiff now has the gall to proclaim that he held Trump accountable!
(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. You may email him at [email protected].)
