Posted on 01/28/2020 3:16:08 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
President Donald Trump’s legal team is raising a broad-based attack on the impeachment case against him even as it mostly brushes past allegations in a new book that could undercut a key defense argument at his Senate trial.
Former national security adviser John Bolton writes in a manuscript that Trump wanted to withhold military aid from Ukraine until it committed to helping with investigations into Democratic rival Joe Biden. That assertion matters because Trump and his lawyers have repeatedly insisted that he never tied the suspension of security aid to political investigations.
The revelation clouded White House hopes for a swift end to the impeachment trial, as Democrats demanded witnesses and some Republicans expressed openness to the idea. It also distracted from hours of arguments Monday from Trump’s lawyers, who declared anew that no witness has testified to direct knowledge that Trump’s delivery of aid was contingent on investigations into Democrats. Bolton appeared poised to say exactly that if summoned by the Senate.
“We deal with transcript evidence, we deal with publicly available information,” attorney Jay Sekulow said. “We do not deal with speculation.”
Trump has sought, without providing evidence, to implicate the Bidens in the kind of corruption that has long plagued Ukraine. Though anti-corruption advocates have raised concerns, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either the former vice president or his son.
Elizabeth Warren, a presidential campaigner like Biden but also a Senate juror, told reporters she found Dershowitz’s arguments “nonsensical.”
Even as defense lawyers laid out their case as planned, it was clear Bolton’s book had scrambled the debate over whether to seek witnesses. Trump’s legal team has rejected Bolton’s account, and Trump himself denied it.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
I would like to see the Senate agree to witnesses, but use “like” rules from the House impeachment. The Defense will have the final say on whether a witness will be allowed.
Guess the Rats and their ilk missed the presentations yesterday. The whole process was a fraud. No need for the Repubs to do the Rats dirty laundry.
If you use normal rules on subpoenas...only the Senate committees have this power...not the broad senate itself. An example...the Senate Judiciary Committee could go and issue the subpoenas, but the only GOP guy I can see who’d go and vote on this is Graham...the other 11 GOP guys won’t agree with this. In a 11-11 situation...nothing happens.
Maybe Justice Roberts thinks he has this subpoena power.
So bring in a thousand witnesses. Maybe a zillion.
Nothing will change the truth.
Aid was delivered before the deadline, no investigations, Ukrainians said they were not pressured, etc.
The only ‘pressure’ I see is coming from Chuckles and Big Media. Very strange.
“The whole process was a fraud.”
The whole process IS a Greek farce and handjobs like Romney and Collins swallow it hook line and sinker.
The pressure grows for witnesses from the Democrat Liberal Media and DNC. Most people are sick and tired of the whole fiasco.
If he told Bolton that’s what he wanted, it doesn’t matter because the Ukraine got the lethal aid and President Trump never communicated what he supposedly told Bolton to the Ukraine. Did Bolton pass this supposed conversation on to Zelinsky? I doubt it. The point is moot.
“No need for the Repubs to do the Rats dirty laundry.”
More than several GOP Senators see through the fraud. There are about a dozen or so that don’t appear to live in the real world. Like this guy Romney, who is treating this like the demokraps have a legitimate case. If there were a need for witnesses for the House Managers, it would be all of the witnesses that appeared before them who gave them the “overwhelming” evidence of impeachable offense that must be dealt with “urgently”. They don’t need Bolton, or anyone else. Except the demokraps have no evidence. Trump on the other hand should get to call any witnesses to defend himself.
But what is so apparent to us doesn’t matter to these people in DC, for as you can see the truth doesn’t matter to them, only power and the $$$ it brings. For Schiff to be exposed as a fraud and a liar by the defense, and the demokraps have no shame? The media has been long exposed as frauds too; they are a wing of the demokrap party.
The strategy for the demokraps is so obvious ... drag this thing out as long as possible...they have nothing to lose, and more campaign fodder to support their slander and libel to gain for the 2020 elections.
The Javelin missiles were not frozen.
The other question is who’s the New York Times leaker? I read the other day it had to pass a review by the NSC and Col Vindman’s brother managed that. Hmmmmmmm?
Slam shampeachment to the mat and get the Senate back to approving judges.
And a bonch of the house impeachment managers voted against aid to the Ukraine...
And a bunch of the house impeachment managers voted against aid to the Ukraine...
Elizabeth Warren, a presidential campaigner like Biden but also a Senate juror, told reporters she found Dershowitz's arguments "nonsensical."
Not a single senate vote on the ultimate outcome will be changed based on the trial. The outcome is partisan except maybe 3 senators on the fringe.
The DEM party position, across the board, is orange man bad, he cannot be allowed to hold the office or run for it. They all point to the Ukraine interaction as justification. It doesn't matter that his is nutty, they are invested, and they will not retreat.
Arguing and attempting to reason with them on this is a waste of time, other than building a historical record.
The GOP better impeach the next DEM president. I want that in their party platform.
If that is so, it is only because the senate as a whole delegated the power.
As for conduct in an impeachment trial, we already saw Schumer attempt to get 51 senators to agree to have subpoeans issued to certain people and institutions. This is an example of seeking "whole senate" approval for subpoena.
We see that. All they have to say is that the Schiff lies, Schiff as a potential witness, and tainted, basement, secret hearings in the House have destroyed any legitimacy to seriously consider the charges. Let the demokraps scream about witnesses 24/7, remain deaf to them and repeat, repeat, repeat.
Unfortunately the GOP has some members that are very detached from reality, insulated by a media, can’t see what is going on and are giving legitimacy to the demokrap sham. And this still happens to people like Romney - didn’t earn anything even from the recent Kavanaugh hearings about who the demokraps are. I wonder why life is unfair sometimes - how do dolts like Romney have millions of $$$ when he lacks common sense.
Do you think anyone will ask what happened to the corruption in Ukraine after Joe Biden got Shokin “fired”? Was he happy with the replacement? What did he accomplish that Shokin didn’t? What happened to the Burisma investigations? Oh, I forgot, this is about Trump.
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