“If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell”. (Carl Sandburg)
The ongoing impeachment drama in Washington D.C. is playing out much like the famous poet described above.
Initially, when a whistleblower called out some inappropriate behavior by President Trump and his Administration with regard to Ukrainian diplomacy, the Prez and his buddies said, “It never happened.”
Then, when transcripts (more on this later) of a telephone call in question were released by the White House, and they verified the gist of the whistleblower charges, the President then changed course, claiming that the whistleblower was not there, so his allegations were fabricated.
Then, when other Administration officials stepped forward to confirm the whistleblower’s concerns, the President went into scorched earth mode, calling out those officials and the whistleblower as “traitors”, “Democrats”, “Never Trumpers” and “human scum”, among other things.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has forbidden Administration officials, current and past, from testifying in front of Congressional committees
Lately, as a clear picture of extortion by the White House to leverage action by a foreign government to damage one of Trump’s main Democratic political opponents has emerged, Administration lawyers, spokespeople, and the President’s Fox News propaganda arm have focused on the propriety of Congress investigating such matters.
Interestingly, the word “unconstitutional” has been thrown into the discussion by Republican Party stalwarts, forgetting, of course, that impeachment is the only remedy that our Constitution provides for Presidential wrongdoing and malfeasance. Impeachment is not a criminal trial, and Congress sets its own rules as to how it proceeds. Any student of U.S. government knows this, and, of course, impeachment is political, so partisanship enters the picture.
(Partisanship was 100 percent the issue in late 1998 when the Republican-controlled House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton. The moral lapses of Clinton were dreadful, but hardly the “high crimes and misdemeanors” that the Founding Fathers envisioned when they devised the impeachment provisions of the Constitution. No matter to the Republicans; they wanted through impeachment what they could not achieve through the ballot box. Clinton was a popular President…before his sexual proclivities became known. Impeachment was a partisan tool used to pull down the pants of the Clinton Administration. And, it worked.)
All of this should have been known by President Trump when he took the oath to “faithfully execute the office of President” and “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution”. That he thumbed his nose at such obligations and promises is a problem that he will now have to deal with, at least while the Democratic-majority House of Representatives is drawing up Articles of Impeachment.
It is likely, during this unfolding drama, that there will be more detail added with regard to the transcripts of Presidential telephone conversations with foreign heads of state. Mr. Trump, if nothing else, is perhaps the world’s most accomplished and unabashed liar, so it is quite likely that the transcripts that the President has seen fit to release for public consumption are the sanitized versions, far from verbatim accuracy.Several Administration officials who were present during the White House call to the Ukrainian President have already testified to this.
A transcript is the official record of an event…as the Administration wants it portrayed. Key redactions from the verbatim can dramatically change the gist of the actual conversation and the implications (i.e. quid pro quo).
Does anyone recall the famous “18 minute gap” in Nixon’s Oval Office tapes? I do.
Example of a redacted transcript:
“What can I do for you, Godfather?”
“We’ve got to (REDACTED) Vinny!”
“What manner of (REDACTED) do you prefer, Godfather?”
“How ‘bout you cut off his (REDACTED), stuff them in his (REDACTED), poke out his (REDACTED), shove a pool cue up his (REDACTED), fit him with some (REDACTED) boots, and toss (REDACTED) into the East River?”
“Can do. What about his family? They know a lot.”
“Have some pipe-laying Brothers (REDACTED) the wife, his daughter and his sons, then (REDACTED) all of their throats, pour (REDACTED) on their bodies, and set them on (REDACTED)”
“No problem. Anything else?”
“Pick up a foot-long Italian sandwich and a Diet Coke on your way back to the office”
“Yessir!”
I suspect that a skilled defense attorney, based upon this transcript, could argue that the Godfather didn’t specifically instruct anything to be done… except fill out his lunch order.
Transcripts with redactions hardly tell the story. That’s why testimony from those who were there is highly useful, and it is why, apparently, the Trump Administration doesn’t want any officials cooperating with Congressional inquiries. The President has ordered them not to do so.
This “stonewalling” adds another potential Article of Impeachment to the list: obstruction of Congress, which has previously been construed to be a category of “high crime and misdemeanor”.
In the case of Richard Nixon’s impeachment, obstruction of justice (i.e. “the cover-up”), not the Watergate burglary itself, was most damning in the eyes of Congressional investigators of both political parties. Many Federal offices had been involved in hiding the truth, at the direction of the President and his key staff. The Executive Branch of government had been corrupted.
It remains unlikely that President Trump will be removed from office through impeachment.
Once the House of Representatives approves its Articles of Impeachment, the Senate, acting as jury, will try the case against Mr. Trump. Since, to this date, the Republican-majority Senate has seen fit to rubber-stamp the President’s initiatives and seldom publicly oppose or condemn his atrocious behavior, it is unlikely that anything will result from the impeachment drama, except hardening partisanship in America.
And, further embolden President Trump.