What To Expect During Nadler’s Monday Impeachment ‘Trial’

Before House Democrats move forward with articles of impeachment against President Trump – which may come later in the week, they’re going to hold a ‘trial’ on Monday in which the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees will present evidence to support their case, according to CNN.

On Saturday night, the House Judiciary Committee released a 52-page report, an update to previous Judiciary Committee reports issued in 1974 and 1998 during the Nixon and Clinton impeachments. While it does not accuse Trump of committing any impeachable offenses, it it lays out what Congressional Democrats consider constitutional grounds for impeachment.

Here’s now Monday’s hearing will go, per CNN, citing a Democratic official working on the impeachment inquiry:

• Nadler and Republican Rep. Doug Collins, the ranking member of the committee, will first deliver opening statements
• House Judiciary Committee counsels will then present opening arguments for an hour (30 minutes for each side). It will be “like a trial,” the official said, presenting “our theory of the case.” The Democratic counsel will be Barry Berke and GOP counsel will be Steve Castor. They will not take questions.
• House Intelligence Committee counsels will then present findings from their respective reports. First, Democratic counsel Dan Goldman will present for 45 minutes with Castor presenting the GOP report for 45 minutes. Both will take questions afterward.
• Nadler and his counsel will then have a 45-minute round of questioning followed by a 45-minute round of questioning by Collins and his counsel.
• Each member will then get their 5-minute round of questioning.

Democrats plan to argue that President Trump’s abused his power by requesting that Ukraine conduct investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, as well as allegations that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 US election for Hillary Clinton.

What you can expect Democrats to argue Monday is that Ukraine is a “part of a repeating pattern” of Trump abusing his office, the source said.

“That’s why Ukraine is so important,” the source said. They plan to argue that the abuse of power “betrays national security” and involves “corruption of our elections,” the source added. “This is the framers’ nightmare.” –CNN

On Saturday, House Judiciary Democrats met to hold a mock impeachment hearing, where Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe was present and spoke with committee Democrats, according to the report. Tribe has suggested in the past that Trump could be impeached through an interpretation of the Constitution’s impeachment clause that would allow for fewer Senators to vote in order to remove President Trump – a prospect deemed “not very likey” by the Washingtonian.

On Sunday, Nadler said that Trump will ‘rig’ the 2020 election if he isn’t impeached and removed.

“The Framers worst nightmare is what we are facing in this very moment,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said in a statement. “President Trump abused his power, betrayed our national security, and corrupted our elections, all for personal gain. The Constitution details only one remedy for this misconduct: impeachment. The safety and security of our nation, our democracy, and future generations hang in the balance if we do not address this misconduct. In America, no one is above the law, not even the President.”

Apparently losing a ton of weight makes you a hypocrite.

Ranking member Doug Collins, meanwhile, demanded on Saturday that Nadler postpone Monday’s hearing after Democrats dumped “thousands of pages of documents” to House Judiciary Republicans “less than 48 hours before Judiciary’s hearing scheduled to examine impeachment presentations from Intelligence and Judiciary Committees.

The document release comes 25 days after Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee wrote to Chairman Nadler requesting all documents related  to the impeachment investigation according to House Rule XI, 2(e)2(a). Republicans received no response from the chairman. –House Judiciary Republicans

“Chairman Nadler has no choice but to postpone Monday’s hearing in the wake of a last-minute document transmission that shows just how far Democrats have gone to pervert basic fairness. Nearly a month after every Republican on our committee asserted our clear right to see all underlying documents held by the committees involved in the impeachment investigation, we have received no response from the chairman. Instead, Democrats waited until after Speaker Pelosi announced that articles of impeachment were imminent and chose the eve of the Judiciary Committee’s impeachment hearing to share loads of documents that Chairman Schiff has had since this investigation began. It is impossible for Judiciary members to sift through thousands and thousands of pages in any meaningful way in a matter of hours,” said Collins.

“Moreover, Democrats still refuse to release all documentation in their possession, though Republicans have demanded this according to rules of the House — which Democrats themselves adopted in January. The information Democrats released today is partial, biased and curated to support accusations that have, to date, been thinner than cotton candy.”

“Americans still don’t have access to any information that Adam Schiff hasn’t chosen to weave into his trail of lies. On behalf of millions of American voters who deserve the truth, Chairman Nadler must postpone this hearing while the Judiciary Committee examines these documents. At the same time, Chairman Schiff must release to House members the complete body of underlying evidence that he has concealed.

“The unfairness and dishonesty of this impeachment sham continue to be unprecedented. In violating the rules that this House adopted democratically, Democrats have violated their oaths of office. Under Speaker Pelosi’s leadership, House Democrats have eroded the integrity of our chamber and sacrificed the confidence of Americans who trust Congress to balance power, not abuse it.“

On Friday, the White House said in a statement that it would be a “reckless abuse of power” for House Democrats to impeach Trump, and “would constitute the most unjust, highly partisan, and unconstitutional attempt at impeachment in our Nation’s history.”

A White House senior administration told The Hill that they won’t be participating in the House’s efforts. “We don’t see any reason to participate because the process is unfair,” said the source. “Speaker Pelosi has already announced the predetermined result. They will not give us the ability to call any witnesses.”

“House Democrats have wasted enough of America’s time with this charade,” wrote White House counsel Pat Cipillone in the Friday letter to Nadler, calling the impeachment inquiry “completely baseless.”

“You should end this inquiry now and not waste even more time with additional hearings. Adopting articles of impeachment would be a reckless abuse of power by House Democrats, and would constitute the most unjust, highly partisan, and unconstitutional attempt at impeachment in our Nation’s history,” he added, before concluding that the House should get this over with so that Trump can be acquitted in the Senate.