Politics - News Analysis

The Fix is In: GOP Sens. Cruz, Lee and Graham Just Met with Trump’s Defense Lawyers, ‘Very Unusual’

 I solemnly swear or affirm that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of , now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: so help me God.

Senate Oath Upon Sitting as Jurors

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In Trump’s first impeachment trial some of us could not believe the degree of “in your face” corruption that occurred in guise of “normalcy.” In that proceeding, the jury foreman, Mitch McConnell, openly bragged that there wasn’t an inch of daylight between Trump’s position on the trial and McConnell’s. McConnell knew because he had met with Trump on the subject many times. Some of us with actual legal training really wondered how Chief Justice Roberts just sat there and took it.

While it is true that Chief Justices have mostly sat as figureheads in impeachment trials, we can’t really figure out why. It is not like there’s a long line of precedent. Until Trump’s first impeachment trial, there had been a grand total of two trials to that point. But the Constitution says specifically that there is to be a trial and that – in the case of the removal of a president, the Chief Justice shall preside. We couldn’t figure out why C. J. Roberts didn’t act like a judge and rule that trials require evidence and that the chief foreman, Mitch McConnell, would stop planning the steps of the trial with the defendant.

And now because Roberts refused to treat the matter as a trial it’s all turned into nothing more than a somewhat abnormal Senate proceeding.

How bad is it?

Today, Trump’s lawyers were seen meeting with Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Lindsey Graham, aka “jurors.” What could they possibly have to talk about? If this ever happened in a real trial, a mistrial would be called immediately and that lawyer would not only be disbarred but could possibly face criminal charges for attempting to manipulate a juror or at least contempt of court. But since the precedent has been set that impeachment isn’t “really” a trial – as now already established under C. J. Roberts and previously under Rehnquist and Clinton – then why not meet with the jurors and check in on how it’s going? Who is going to punish them?

This is disgusting.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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