Friday, December 20, 2019

Pearls of expression.

But what was historic about it was not that Donald Trump became the third president to be impeached. What was historic was the way it was done. That was a first.

Because it was not the House that impeached President Donald Trump, it was the Democratic Party. Which just happened to have the majority in the House. They appear to think that this is all that’s needed, which is a big mistake and an even bigger gamble.

"Only The Damage To America Is Real." By Raul Ilargi Meijer, ZeroHedge, 12/20/19.

4 comments:

Andy Texan said...

What the D'Rats did was not an impeachment. It was a Bill of Attainder. They should be punished with extreme prejudice.

Cordolf said...

Hey, you never know. Until they actually submit the articles of impeachment to the Senate for the trial, he's not actually impeached.

And since Pelosi won't submit them until she gets the Senate to agree to play by her rules (which has to be the most bizarre threat of all time - what's scary is I think that some Republicans would let her get away with it), she might not do it.

That'll REALLY show Trump.

Col. B. Bunny said...

Andy Texan, that's an interesting point. BoA are targeted efforts and, since there's nothing to tie the whole impeachment process to anything referenced in the Constitution, it's rather like a sui generis effort. Offenses that don't exist in any criminal code but created for the golden moment of Get Trump. "We made it all up, yo, so now defend yourself, pal."

Cordolf, it seems like a weak point at first blush but subsection 6(f) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provides in part that "The indictment shall be returned by the grand jury, or through the foreperson or deputy foreperson on its behalf, to a federal magistrate judge in open court." Section 7(c)(1) requires that the indictment "shall be signed by the attorney for the government."

2001 version.

True this applies to plain vanilla criminal cases but clearly in federal criminal procedure return and signing are prerequisites to initiation of formal proceedings. It doesn't follow to me that an impeachment proceeding would not have similar formal requirements other than preparation of and agreement by the House to what is only a charging document, just like and indictment. Too, the idea of the foreman of the grand jury being openly coy about whether or not he or she would return all their work to the magistrate.

Col. B. Bunny said...

he idea of the foreman of the grand jury being openly coy . . . is just bizarre.