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The Impeachment of President Donald J. Trump

RULES OF PROCEDURE AND PRACTICE IN THE SENATE WHEN SITTING ON IMPEACHMENT TRIALS

I. Whensoever the Senate shall receive notice from the House of Representatives that managers are appointed on their part to conduct an impeachment against any person and are directed to carry articles of impeachment to the Senate, the Secretary of the Senate shall immediately inform the House of Representatives that the Senate is ready to receive the managers for the purpose of exhibiting such articles of impeachment, agreeably to such notice.

II. When the managers of an impeachment shall be introduced at the bar of the Senate and shall signify that they are ready to exhibit articles of impeachment against any person, the Presiding Officer of the Senate shall direct the Sergeant at Arms to make proclamation, who shall, after making proclamation, repeat the following words, viz: ‘‘All persons are commanded to keep silence, on pain of impris- onment, while the House of Representatives is exhibiting to the Senate of the United States articles of impeachment against ——— ———’’; after which the articles shall be exhibited, and then the Presiding Officer of the Senate shall inform the managers that the Senate will take proper order on the subject of the impeachment, of which due notice shall be given to the House of Representatives.

It would appear that this is all supposed to happen simultaneously, the House appoints their case managers and the Senate gets ready to receive them, sending word to the Speaker that they are ready to proceed with the impeachment trial. The congressional holiday just seems to creates a nice natural break from the next phase, case managers haven’t been selected yet.

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This is helpful,

And this

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Handy guide

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WTAF.

Also:


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I hate to say it, but studying Trump, this guy has a point; Trump always, ALWAYS seeks revenge, and has outright said so many times.

Ex-Reagan Adviser Makes Ominous Prediction About How Trump Will Respond To Impeachment

David Gergen warned an “embittered” president will now focus on “getting even.”

David Gergen, a former longtime White House adviser, warned that President Donald Trump will respond to his impeachment over the Ukraine scandal by seeking revenge.

Gergen ― who served under GOP Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Democratic President Bill Clinton ― noted to CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday how Trump’s belligerent attitude toward his impeachment contrasted to that of Clinton and Nixon, who he said “actually came out contrite.”

“This president is so embittered that he’s gonna come out and spend the rest of his time in office getting even,” Gergen predicted. “And that’s what troubles us here is you look ahead, what kind of presidency is this now going to be?”

“Nixon was good enough to leave, he had to leave,” Gergen continued. “But Clinton went ahead and worked for the good of the country.”

Gergen added: “What you want to do is have a president committed to the good of the country, not for carrying out vendettas against Debbie Dingell because she voted the way she did.”

How the 31 Democrats in Trump districts voted on impeachment

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:eyes:

In the President’s mind his impeachment isn’t real, it’s a hoax that should never happen to another President ever. :snowflake::snowflake::snowflake::snowflake:

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McConnell on Senate impeachment trial: “I’m not an impartial juror”

Big surprise: Putin scolds Congress for being mean to his puppet.

Putin on Trump Impeachment: ‘Your Members of Congress Should Know Better’

The remarks from the Russian leader came during his wide-ranging annual press conference.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world-report/articles/2019-12-19/putin-on-trump-impeachment-your-members-of-congress-should-know-better



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:eyes:

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“Christianity Today” is trending on Twitter after they came out for impeachment and removal.

“Trump Should Be Removed from Office; It’s time to say what we said 20 years ago when a president’s character was revealed for what it was.”

It is a mainstream evangelical publication.

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:boom:

Here’s some news concerning where T had gotten his Ukraine tip and how he felt that Ukraine had helped manipulate the election which some WH administrators are saying that T told them “Putin told me.” These kinds of revelations are pertinent especially in the midst of the impeachment (and potential) removal drive.

These officials spoke on the condition of anonymity but it does suggest some leaking out of important bits of information.

It has been asserted that there will be a few more ‘bombshells’ concerning T during the impeachment proceedings. You wonder what those may be.

from https://currentstatus.io/

Almost from the moment he took office, President Trump seized on a theory that troubled his senior aides: Ukraine, he told them on many occasions, had tried to stop him from winning the White House.

After meeting privately in July 2017 with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Trump grew more insistent that Ukraine worked to defeat him, according to multiple former officials familiar with his assertions.

The president’s intense resistance to the assessment of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia systematically interfered in the 2016 campaign — and the blame he cast instead on a rival country — led many of his advisers to think that Putin himself helped spur the idea of Ukraine’s culpability, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

One former senior White House official said Trump even stated so explicitly at one point, saying he knew Ukraine was the real culprit because “Putin told me.”

Two other former officials said the senior White House official described Trump’s comment to them.

The Ukraine theory that has consumed Trump’s attention has now been taken up by Republicans in Congress who are defending the president against impeachment. Top GOP lawmakers have demanded investigations of Ukrainian interference for which senior U.S. officials, including the director of the FBI, say there is no evidence.

Allegations about Ukraine’s role in the 2016 race have been promoted by an array of figures, including right-wing journalists whose work the president avidly consumes, as well as Rudolph W. Giuliani, his personal lawyer. But U.S. intelligence officials told lawmakers and their staff members this past fall that Russian security services played a major role in spreading false claims of Ukrainian complicity, said people familiar with the assessments.

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“Let’s grant this to the president: The Democrats have had it out for him from day one, and therefore nearly everything they do is under a cloud of partisan suspicion. This has led many to suspect not only motives but facts in these recent impeachment hearings. And, no, Mr. Trump did not have a serious opportunity to offer his side of the story in the House hearings on impeachment.”

I disagree with the premise that dems have had it out for him from day one. There were some of us who were begrudgingly willing to give him a chance. And he started the lies from the inauguration on.

And he was given the opportunity to present his side and chose not to do it. Plus he blocked the subpoenas that might have shed light on the case.

Granted, this is an opinion piece, so they can put anything in the article. I keep looking for the challenges to obviously false statements.

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Cross-posting :pray:

tenor

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Weekly Summary of the Impeachment of Trump

December 2nd - 13th

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Congress is on break until January 6, 2020


General Impeachment News:

Senate Trial:

Sideshow Rudy:

Documents:

Public Hearings:

Full House Session:

:newspaper: Timeline has been updated. Breaking news starts below. :point_down:

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Indeed; I expect a conservative take on things there that I am going to disagree with on many points, but that is apparently THE largest evangelical magazine coming out against Trump. Those are some big cracks opening up.

Also, for your amusement, here’s the part where Donnie called the magazine “far left” and “very progressive.”

…Donnie also apparently confused CT with ET, Entertainment Tonight.

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Opinion: Yes, Republicans, The Impeachment Process Has Been A Partisan Sham – Because Of You

George Conway: Republican senators run the risk of being shamed by Trump himself

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OH COME ON!

White House considers arguing that Trump wasn’t impeached

The White House is considering making the argument that President Trump has not officially been impeached, given that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not transmitted the articles of impeachment to the Senate, two sources involved in the president’s impeachment defense told CBS News.

The House voted to impeach Mr. Trump on two articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — on Wednesday. However, Pelosi told reporters on Thursday that the House would wait to deliver the articles until the Senate had laid out the rules for the trial.

“When we see the process that’s set forth in the Senate, then we’ll know the number of managers we’ll have to move forward, and who we would choose,” the California Democrat said. The House must vote on a resolution designating impeachment managers to prosecute the case against Mr. Trump in the Senate before delivering the articles.

The White House is considering making the case that Mr. Trump has not been impeached based on an opinion piece by Harvard Law Professor Noah Feldman on Bloomberg’s opinion page Thursday. Feldman was one of the legal experts called by Democrats to testify before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month and has advocated for Mr. Trump’s impeachment and removal from office.

“Impeachment as contemplated by the Constitution does not consist merely of the vote by the House, but of the process of sending the articles to the Senate for trial,” Feldman wrote in Bloomberg. “Both parts are necessary to make an impeachment under the Constitution: The House must actually send the articles and send managers to the Senate to prosecute the impeachment. And the Senate must actually hold a trial.”

“If the House does not communicate its impeachment to the Senate, it hasn’t actually impeached the president. If the articles are not transmitted, Trump could legitimately say that he wasn’t truly impeached at all,” Feldman wrote.

However, Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe wrote on Twitter that he disagreed with Feldman’s analysis, saying that “under Art. I, Sec. 2, Clause 5, he was impeached on Dec 18, 2019. He will forever remain impeached. Period.” That portion of the Constitution says that the House of Representatives “shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”

The sources told CBS News that the White House views Pelosi’s delay as “a Christmas gift.” They plan to use the delay to argue that the Democrats have so little faith in their own case for impeachment, they are too scared to trigger a trial they know they will lose. The two sources also say that the president, while “angry” about what he views as an unfair process, is actually in a “very good mood,” and feels confident he can win the messaging war via Twitter while lawmakers are back home for the holidays.

A senior White House official said the White House might pursue that line of messaging, but the White House is also in a “wait and see” attitude over the Christmas holiday. Right now, the official said they preferred to focus on “happy” messaging, not “flogging” impeachment messaging over the holidays.

Republicans in Congress are already making this argument. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor Thursday that Pelosi’s decision to withhold the articles from the Senate shows Democrats “may be too afraid to even transmit their shoddy work product to the Senate.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy echoed those comments: “She’s admitting defeat by not sending them. By refusing to send impeachment over, she knows its outcome is not good.”

Pelosi and Democrats in the House and Senate are trying to pressure the Senate to call for more documents and for witnesses who did not testify in the House impeachment proceedings because the White House prevented them from appearing.

“I told leader McConnell that we would not support any trial without witnesses or documents,” House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday.

Mr. Trump’s legislative director told CBS News that Mr. Trump is “baffled” by the possibility that Pelosi might withhold articles of impeachment from the Senate for an extended period of time.

“I think the president is completely baffled at the theory that Nancy Pelosi appears to have that somehow holding back impeachment articles will leverage some sort of specific behavior out of the Senate,” Eric Ueland told CBS News chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett in an interview for “The Takeout” podcast.

Ueland suggested that holding the articles could be “constitutionally questionable.” He also said it would be “extraordinarily unprecedented” if articles were to be withheld in order to force a legislative outcome.

In a rare interview that will air Sunday, the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan that her father was “energized” by his impeachment, which she called “the first purely partisan impeachment.”

Still, Ueland and White House counsel Pat Cipollone were offered the opportunity to tour the Senate floor, which would serve as a courtroom, and check out the support spaces behind the scenes. They also have the chance to be introduced to people who are there every day when the Senate is in session, and would be for any Senate trial.

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Pelosi and McConnell step into impeachment abyss

Some legal scholars say the Senate can simply declare that the president has been impeached — citing the House’s approval of two articles charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — and hold a trial without delay. Conversely, some Trump allies say perhaps the brouhaha about transferring articles means the president technically hasn’t been impeached yet; if he already is, the thinking goes, the Senate wouldn’t have to wait on the perfunctory transfer of articles from the House to begin a trial.

A hitch in that argument is the Senate’s own 1,500-page manual of rules of procedure, which declare that an impeachment trial can’t begin until the House names “impeachment managers” to deliver the case to the Senate. Though the Senate has the power to change that process, so far there’s been no effort or energy to do so. The remaining Senate procedures on the books spell out the conduct of the Senate trial once it begins.

The House, which has its own 1,500-page manual, offers only limited answers about the process of sending articles to the Senate. Once the House adopts articles of impeachment, according to the manual, there is no timeframe for when it must name managers to formally notify the Senate. Typically, this is done in a resolution after the impeachment vote, which names the managers, informs the Senate and authorizes manager to begin preparing for trial.

Pelosi alluded to that separate resolution during her press conference Thursday. “There is a bill made in order by the Rules Committee that we can call up at any time, in order to send it over to the Senate and to have the provisions in there to pay for the impeachment,” she said. "And then, the next step, whatever you want to call it, the trial. That is where you put the managers. I was not prepared to put the managers in that bill yet because we don’t know the arena that we are in."

Some lawmakers believe Pelosi is adopting this stance to make the Senate sweat and infuriate Trump, who’s desperate to put on his impeachment defense, even though she’ll ultimately deliver the articles soon after the two-week Christmas recess. All of the discussion would become moot if McConnell and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer strike a deal on trial procedures in the meantime. But on Friday, the two sides were still in conflict, with little optimism for a breakthrough anytime soon.

Let’s look at those “sole powers“ in the constitution.

House

Senate

Rules come after the constitution in the order of operations. Constitutionally it seems like the House decides who is impeached and the Senate has the power to try any impeachment passed by the House. No mention of transferring documents or any of the procedures, which were later developed.

I suppose it could be consider a mini constitutional crisis if the Senate claims they can’t honor the oath they are to undertake as jurors in the impeachment trial. But perhaps those who feel they can’t honor that oath should just recuse themselves and vote present. :woman_shrugging:t2: What do y’all think?

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Incidentally related, Speaker Pelosi’s invitation to Trump for the State of the Union is some epic shade-throwing, and reminding him of what the Constitution says.


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Nancy very effectively uses “mean girl” tactics against the President. I’ve used this method on trolls and can personally vouch for the efficiency at troll dispersal. But you have to absolutely commit to the full “Regina”.

:smirk::wink:

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