Daybreak, Politics, Entertainment, Sport

Tag: Trump Impeachment

Trump Impeachment Defense Lawyers Leave Team Days Before Trial
Several of former US President Donald Trump’s impeachment lawyers have left his team a little over a week before his trial, US media reported Saturday.
CNN cited unnamed sources as saying that five lawyers — including two who were thought to be leading the team — had parted ways with the Republican billionaire after disagreeing over his legal strategy.
Trump had wanted the lawyers to continue his baseless claims of mass election fraud rather than focus on the legality of convicting a president after he has left office, CNN said, adding that he was “not receptive” to discussion.
The lawyers included Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, expected to lead Trump’s defense, CNN and other outlets reported, saying it had been a “mutual decision.”
“We have done much work, but have not made a final decision on our legal team, which will be made shortly,” tweeted Trump advisor Jason Miller in response to the reports.
The development leaves Trump, who has reportedly been struggling to form a defense ahead of his historic second impeachment trial over the ransacking of the US Capitol this month, facing new hurdles with just days to go.
However, even with his legal team in chaos he looks increasingly likely to dodge conviction.
Nearly all senators from his party have signaled opposition to his trial and fueled efforts to censure him instead.
The trial — in which Trump faces a charge of “incitement of insurrection” — will begin on February 9.
But with just five Republicans joining all 50 Democrats this week in agreeing that the trial should go forward, it appears unlikely that 17 Republicans would vote against Trump, the minimum number needed to reach the two-thirds threshold for conviction.
A censure would be less severe than expulsion but is a formal statement of disapproval.
It would still need 10 Republicans to go along in order to overcome any blocking tactics set out by Trump loyalists.
While a conviction would lead to a simple-majority vote on whether to bar Trump from holding any future public office, a censure resolution carries no such trigger.
That would leave the door open for Trump to run again in 2024, a prospect that a significant portion of Republicans now support, despite the deadly storming of the Capitol on January 6 by a mob of pro-Trump extremists in an effort to overturn the results of the election.
AFP
January 31, 2021
Trump Impeachment Trial At Senate To Begin February 8
Donald Trump’s US Senate trial will begin in the second week of February, days after a fresh impeachment case against the former president is transmitted by the House, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday.
The newly announced schedule reflects a deal struck by Senate leaders to delay the substantive portion of the trial for two weeks so that the chamber may conduct other critical business including confirmation of President Joe Biden’s cabinet nominees.
The House of Representatives impeached Trump for a historic second time on January 13, just one week before he left office.
Schumer said the article of impeachment will be delivered and read out to the Senate on Monday at 7:00 pm (0000 GMT Tuesday). The chamber’s 100 members will be sworn in as trial jurors the next day.
The House members assigned by Speaker Nancy Pelosi as impeachment managers, and members of Trump’s yet-to-be-named defense team, will then be given time to draft their legal briefs.
“Once the briefs are drafted, presentation by the parties will commence the week of February 8,” Schumer told colleagues on the Senate floor.
During the two-week interim, the Senate will act on Biden’s cabinet nominations “and the Covid relief bill which would provide relief for millions of American who are suffering during this pandemic,” Schumer added.
“Healing and unity will only come if there is truth and accountability, and that is what this trial will provide.”
Members will deliberate whether to convict Trump on what the US Constitution describes as “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Trump was impeached on a single charge of “incitement of insurrection” for his role in whipping up his supporters during a speech in Washington on January 6, the day a pro-Trump mob stormed Congress and threatened the lives of lawmakers and then-vice president Mike Pence.
Five people died in the violence, including a police officer.
‘Unprecedentedly fast’
The delay is the result of a deal Schumer struck with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
McConnell was a close congressional ally to Trump during his term, but he severely reprimanded the outgoing president for repeatedly seeking to overturn results of the election and for his incitement of protesters, and he left the door open for voting to convict Trump.
But he had sought a delay in the trial until February, arguing Trump needs time to hire lawyers and mount a defense.
On Friday, McConnell appeared to express regret for the Democrats’ speedy timetable.
“As I understand, it must be headed our way Monday. By Senate rules, if the article arrives, we have to start a trial right then,” he said on the floor.
But the Senate can agree to its own parameters of the trial timeline.
McConnell spoke of the “unprecedentedly fast” process in the House, where Trump was impeached in a single day.
“The sequel cannot be an insufficient Senate process that denies former president Trump his due process or damages the Senate or the presidency itself,” he said.
Trump survived a first impeachment almost a year ago when the then Republican-controlled Senate acquitted him of abusing his office to try to get dirt on Biden’s family before the presidential election.
With the Senate now comprised of 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, and a two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump, at least 17 Republicans would have to vote against the former president to secure a conviction.
If that occurs, a subsequent vote would be held on whether to ban Trump from holding public office in the future.
A handful of Republicans have spoken out harshly against the president but it remains unclear if there would be enough GOP senators to vote for conviction.
AFP
January 23, 2021
Pelosi Affirms Readiness to Start Second Impeachment of Trump
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday she would push ahead with efforts to remove President Donald Trump from office during the final days of his administration after his supporters’ violent attack on the Capitol.
Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, said there would be a resolution in the House of Representatives on Monday calling for the cabinet to remove Trump as unfit for office under the constitution’s 25th amendment.
If Vice President Mike Pence does not agree, “we will proceed with bringing impeachment legislation” to the floor of the House of Representatives, Pelosi said.
“In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both,” she said.
“As the days go by, the horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action.”
Trump was already impeached once by the Democratic-controlled House — in December 2019 for pressuring the leader of Ukraine to dig up political dirt on Joe Biden.
He was acquitted by the Republican-majority Senate.
Though time is running short, Democrats likely have the votes in the House to impeach Trump again and could even draw some Republican support for the move.
But they are unlikely to muster the two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump in the 100-member Senate and remove him from office.
Trump’s successor Joe Biden is due to be inaugurated on January 20.
AFP
January 11, 2021
Four takeaways from Trump impeachment trial
President Donald Trump was expected to be acquitted Wednesday after a two-week impeachment trial in the Senate. The drama has divided Americans and their institutions and confirmed Trump’s tight grip on his Republican Party, while also showcasing the oratorical and other skills of the chief Democratic accuser, Adam Schiff.
– Two Americas –
The trial illustrated the deep fissures that divide Democrats and Republicans in Congress but also those between everyday Americans under the presidency of the norm-shattering billionaire and former reality TV star.
In the House of Representatives, lawmakers spent hours arguing boisterously before voting largely along party lines on whether to charge Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in the Ukraine scandal.
In the Senate, they sat in silent observance of strict rules governing the impeachment trial. But whenever it went into recess, they rushed before TV cameras or took to Twitter to share irreconcilably opposed views of the historic proceedings.
Democrats called Trump a dangerous leader who considers himself above the law. Republicans argued that Trump was the victim of a coup perpetrated by his enemies to deny him a second term.
Outside Washington, Americans interviewed by AFP voiced opinions that largely fell in line with those of their political party.
Polls said roughly half of Americans wanted Trump removed from office. This opinion was held by 85 per cent of Democratic voters and just 10 per cent of Republicans.
– Republicans inline –
Trump, who won the Republican nomination in 2016 despite overt opposition from some in the party, now has total control over his troops and demands absolute loyalty.
With Twitter as his favourite tool, he rewards fervent defenders with praise and silences rare voices of dissent.
In Congress, he can count on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to keep the party’s lawmakers in line. Two senators did defect in a vote on calling witnesses in the trial, which would have stretched it out longer.
But in the end, Trump’s side won: witnesses with intimate knowledge of the president’s dealings with Ukraine, like former national security advisor John Bolton, were not called to testify.
In the final vote on conviction or acquittal, few if any Republican Senators are expected to find the president guilty.
– Damaged institutions –
The trial also showed how deep divisions between Democrats and Republicans are gumming up the work of Congress.
Since the Democrats retook control of the House in 2019, hundreds of bills passed by the lower chamber have been held up in the Senate.
Trump’s impeachment by the House last month only made things worse, rendering compromise between the two parties virtually impossible.
This bad blood made it impossible for Trump to get a fair trial, said Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, who revealed she intends to acquit despite describing the president’s conduct as “shameful and wrong.”
“It is sad for me to admit that, as an institution, the Congress has failed,” she said.
– Schiff the orator –
Schiff, the lead Democratic prosecutor, or House manager, kept lawmakers spellbound for hours with deftly delivered, highly detailed accounts of what happened in the scandal, with a bit of dramatic flair to boot.
In one his final speeches — Schiff said Trump must be removed from office “because of right matters and truth matters. Otherwise, we are lost” — was spoken with real emotion and went viral.
Actress Alyssa Milano, who watched part of the trial from the public gallery, praised Schiff’s performance.
“Schiff was really interesting, especially from a performer’s perspective,” Milano said.
“And you can see the difference between him and the other impeachment managers, how he is in his element when he gets into that zone of really conveying that narrative and a timeline. It felt like you were watching a one-man show on Broadway.”
Even Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch defender of Trump, called Schiff very well-spoken and said he had done “a good job.”
February 5, 2020
Trump impeached for alleged abuse of power
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday impeached President Donald Trump for alleged abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
With this, Trump has become the third president in U.S. history to be impeached, after Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1999.
Trump, a Republican president, strongly denies the charges approved on Dec. 13 by the Judicial Committee of the House, which is controlled by the opposition Democratic Party.
Impeachment in the US context means indictment, not removal, and it is undertaken by the lower legislative chamber.
A president can only be removed from office on conviction by the Senate, acting on the impeachment, for `treason, bribery or other acts of gross misconduct.
The battle will now shift to the Senate where a two-thirds vote is required to remove the president, a something that has never happened in the country.
Trump is unlikely to be convicted and removed by the Senate, which is controlled by his party whose members in the upper chamber are in support of the president.
The impeachment borders on allegation that the president solicited the interference of a foreign government (Ukraine) in the U.S. democratic process to boost his chances of re-election in 2020.
Trump is accused of pressuring Ukraine to unearth damaging information on former Vice President Joe Biden, who is one of his main Democratic challengers for the presidency in 2020, and his son Hunter.
The president allegedly used a 400-million-dollar military aid approved by Congress to Ukraine, and a White House meeting for Ukraine’s president, as bargaining chips.
Democrats argue that Trump’s actions amount to abuse of presidential power for his personal political gain at the expense of national security.
The president is also accused of obstructing Congress by refusing to co-operate with the congressional inquiry, according to the BBC.
Trump has denied the allegations, dismissing the impeachment move as a “witch hunt” by Democrats and a section of the U.S. of the media. (NAN)
December 19, 2019