Saying he wants a trial in the Senate, 73-yuear-old President Donald Trump put zealous House Democrats on notice that he wants his day in court. Trump wants to let his attorneys present his case to the American people, a far more effective audience than his frequent one-liners on Twitter. Trump’s Democrat and media critics blast him for using Twitter, when it’s the only mass-media tool he can use to tell his story without censorship by the anti-Trump press. Faced with 95% of negative press coverage, according to a Harvard Unitversity study, Trump relies heavily on Twitter but would love to tell his story on national TV with a televised impeachment trial. Trump plans to bring up the government’s unlawful counter-intelligence investigation of him and his campaign, currently under review by Department of Justice Inspector General [IG] Michael Horowitz.
Horowitz is expected to deliver his IG report on the FBI’s surveillance of Trump and his campaign in the 2016 election. Trump wants the public to see that former President Barack Obama authorized his Attorney General Loretta Lynch, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and former FBI Director James Comey to investigate Trump’s alleged ties with Moscow. Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made Trump’s alleged ties to the Kremlin as centerpiece of her campaign, creating the now infamous “dossier,” compiled-and-paid by her campaign to sabotage Trump’s 2016 run. Hillary told a national audience at the last presidential debate in Las Vegas Oct. 19, 2016 that Trump was a “Putin puppet,” something her paid opposition research said was factual. Comey said he relied heavily on Hillary’s “dossier” to take Trump alleged ties to Moscow seriously.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Oct. 1 he would hold an impeachment trial in the Senate at the appropriate time. Some think Democrats won’t craft articles of impeachment, fearing a Senate trial would embarrass their efforts to throw mud on Trump before the 2020 election. Any Senate trial would detract from Democrat presidential candidates required to be in the Senate and off the campaign trial sometime in 2020 when the campaign heats up. Others think that losing the Senate vote, something McConnell thinks is inevitable, would send the wrong message to voters before the 2020 presidential election. Acquitting Trump in the Senate could send voters the message that House Democrats have wasted U.S. tax dollar on a frivolous witch-hunt. McConnell said it’s premature to speculate about a Senate trial when House Democrats have not initiated articles of impeachment.
Trump said he wants a trial because he can call 77-year-old Democrat front-runner former VP Joe Biden and his 50-year-old son Hunter as witnesses. Democrats impeachment inquiry charges Trump with bribery and other high-crimes-and-misdemeanors for his July 25 phone call with 40-year-old with Ukrainian President Zolodymry Zelensky. House Democrats accuse Trump of a quid pro quo, withholding Ukraine’s military funds unless it provides dirt on Joe and his son, Hunter. One small problem for Democrats, Ukraine never gave Trump any information about the Bidens in exchange for $391 million in military aid. Trump has flat out denied the charges, insisting that any discussion with Zelensky was about Ukrainian corruption, something that involved Hunter Biden. Hunter received a lucrative board position while his Vice President father ran an anti-corruption task force for Obama.
When Trump talks of wanting a Senate trial, he only halfway kidding, wishing the whole impeachment mess would go away. “Frankly, I want a trial,” Trump said Friday, Nov. 22 on “Fox and Friends.” Trump said he wants to call Joe Biden and his son Hunter as witnesses together with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Trump would also like to call the so-called “whistleblower,” whose complaint served as the basis of Democrats impeachment proceedings. “There’s only one person I want more that ‘Where’s Hunter?’ and that is Adam Schiff,” Trump said Trump believes that Schiff concocted the whistleblower complaint to start impeachment proceedings. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, opened an investigation into the Biden’s involvement in Ukraine, something Joe called reprehensible.
Trump wants the “whistleblower” to testify to establish a link between Schiff and the original complaint. “I want the whistleblower, who put in a false report to testify,” Trump said, giving his reasoning behind requesting the Senate trial. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) requested the National Archives to produce records of Obama officials meeting with Ukrainian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign. House Democrats know that if they move to an impeachment trial in the Senate all bets are off. Republicans attorneys can subpoena potentially anyone to defend the president. If IG Horowitz finds malfeasance at Obama’s DOJ and FBI, it’s going to turn impeachment proceedings on its head. “I don’t know what appetite anybody has as to a long drawn-out trial,” Graham said, questioning whether Democrats or Republicans want a Senate trial.
