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| Nancy Pelosi |
The day after the House impeached Trump, Pelosi declared the
partisan vote, “A great day for the Constitution of the United States, a sad
day for America that the president’s reckless activities,” only two of which
are mentioned in the indictment brought by the Democrat dominated House,
“necessitated us having to introduce articles of impeachment.”
Even Genghis Khan was more real – “woke” in the language of
millennials. “The greatest joy a man can
have,” said the great Khan, “is to dance on the chest of his enemy.” Moving
inexorably towards impeachment during much of President Donald Trump’s first
term in office, Democrats have been dancing “somberly” while the cameras have
been rolling. But, when they are together far from live mics, is it not
possible to imagine them greeting joyously the above the fold picture and
headline that appeared in a Hartford paper the day after the House voted to
impeach the President? It shows Trump bowing – as if to his fate – surrounded
by an out of focus halo, possibly the Great Seal of the United States, while
above his head a one inch headline trumpets – “IMPEACHED.”
Impeachment in the House is very much like a Grand Jury
indictment, a field day for the prosecution. Since no trial defense is
permitted in closed Grand Jury proceedings, indictments in the hands of able
prosecutors tend to be slam-dunks.
Impeachment is a process, not a vote, and the process requires a submittal by the House of an indictment to the Senate, where a trial on
the charges is conducted. The real show, during which innocence or guilt is
proven, occurs at trial, where the terms of the indictment are tested – i.e.
tried -- before either a judge or jury. Democrats in the House so far have had
the theater of action all to themselves. Part of their impeachment proceedings
were conducted in secret, behind closed doors. That portion of the proceedings
conducted openly relied heavily on testimony provided by second-hand sources,
miscalled “witnesses.”
A witness is someone who has direct knowledge of an event. Information
received at second hand generally is not allowed in trials because such
informants are gossips, not witnesses. And at trial the defense is permitted to
question not only the sufficiency of the charges in the indictment, but also
the witnesses, who are expected – this
should come as no surprise to Democrats such as U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal,
for two decades Connecticut’s Attorney General – to have witnessed directly events
that bear on the indictment. Hearsay evidence is rightly discounted in a trial
during which an accused’s life and sacred honor depend upon a verdict reached
by a jury that is told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
If transmittal to the Senate of the impeachable offenses
fashioned by the House is necessary to impeachment, the Headline in the
Hartford paper may be, at best, premature. Pelosi has decided to delay
transmittal until she is certain that Democrats will receive “fair treatment”
in the Republican dominated Senate. Fair treatment, Republicans in the Senate
may suppose, is treatment the opposite of that accorded Trump in the House,
which relied on hearsay evidence and refused to allow Trump to present a
vigorous defense.
But Pelosi, and her partisan associates, has her own idea of
“just” treatment. Just treatment must involve an assent to the indictment produced,
some would say unfairly, in the House and, to this end, both Pelosi and Senator
Schumer of New York are demanding that Trump’s accusers should be allowed to
summon witnesses that had not participated in the House's deliberations.
Apparently, witnesses not called during the House deliberations were not
necessary to secure the indictment of Trump on two counts: abuse of power and obstruction
of Congress.
The partisan Democrat House, in other words, returned an indictment
on the evidence it considered but does not wish to defend its indictment in a
Senate trial without being able to call upon additional witness testimony that
played no part in its indictment. There is not a court in the land that would
regard this process as “fair” or even just.
In addition, the Constitution in which Democrats have wrapped
themselves absolutely requires the transmittal
of a House indictment to the Senate, without which impeachment cannot occur.
Pelosi is holding the transmittal hostage to persuade Republicans to allow
further witnesses to testify at the Senate trial – perhaps in the hope of
uncovering from new witness testimony a crime to give weight to their light as
air impeachment charges, unsupported by any criminal charge, Democrats having
removed criminal charges such as treason or bribery from their indictment.
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