This is a ‘Trial in Name Only’. It has no teeth. NONE.
Forget the “trumped up” charges of the Articles of Impeachment. Forget that the House did not even bother to have an investigation, listen to witnesses, or do anything resembling due process.
Forget what Trump did or didn’t say, or did or didn’t do. Forget what the fake members of Congress and the fake media want to pretend that Trump did or didn’t say, or did or didn’t do.
Forget ALL of it.
Let’s just look at the “trial.”
The Senate is authorized by the Constitution to hold a trial for all cases of impeachment. It is the ONLY authority Congress has to hold ANY trial of ANY kind.
A basic principle of American law is that there can be no conflict of interest by a judge. In this ‘Trial in Name Only’, there is no judge. Chief Justice Roberts decided not to preside. No judge, whether SCOTUS or otherwise, is presiding over the ‘Trial in Name Only’.
Instead, Patrick Leahy, a member of the JURY is presiding over the ‘Trial in Name Only’. Clearly, that is a conflict of interest. A “judge” cannot also be a member of the jury.
Furthermore, even if there is a “conviction” in this ‘Trial in Name Only’, there is no punishment that the Senate can inflict. None.
The constitutional provision for the authority for impeachment is Article 2, Section 4:
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Removal from office. Period. That is the ONLY remedy. Of course, there are fake constitutional scholars and fake media pundits and fake members of Congress who claim a conviction means the person can never hold public office again.
False.
The Constitution does NOT say that. Removal from office is the ONLY remedy. There could ALSO be a prosecution for any crime committed, but that is not up to Congress to prosecute. That is up to the Department of Justice.
The ONLY provision of the Constitution that states that someone can never hold public office is the 14th Amendment, Section 3:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Congress has ZERO authority to issue this penalty on someone. This could ONLY occur in a court of law, subject to full due process (unlike this ‘Trial in Name Only’). That would be a very big hurdle to get over if the DOJ wanted to prosecute Trump and hold him accountable under the 14th Amendment.
But…
There are many members of Congress, many federal officials, many state officials, along with their private sector co-conspirators who DID engage in an insurrection against the United States of America when they committed election fraud for the purpose of overthrowing a duly elected President.
So, which is it? Is this ‘Trial in Name Only’ claiming that Trump lost the election? If so, then there is NO authority to do anything, because they can’t remove someone from office who is not in office.
Alternatively, are they claiming he won the election, is the duly elected President, and they want to remove him from office? If that is the case, then those voting to proceed with this ‘Trial in Name Only’ have committed treason, and they can be prosecuted.
Either way, this ‘Trial in Name Only’ has no authority. The emperor has no clothes.
