House Judiciary Chairman Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.) unveiled two articles of impeachment today against 73-year-old President Donald Trump. Nadler knows that if the articles are approved by the full House, they’re doomed to fail in the U.S. Senate. Rep. Al Greene (D-Tx.), one of Trump biggest critics, said today that if the Senate acquits Trump as expected, Democrats plan to impeach him on other articles, including the dubious obstruction of justice charge hinted in the March 23 final Mueller Report. Greene and other Democrats, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), want to go after Trump’s past business dealings, including violating the Constitution’s “Emolument Clause,” prohibiting a president from profiting from foreign governments. Green and Ocasio-Cortez contend every time Trump sells a hotel room or charges green fee his golf resorts, he violates the U.S. Constitution.
Both articles of impeachment, one about abusing his presidential power and the other about obstructing Congress, could not be more vague, something that wouldn’t stand up in any low-level trial court. Instead of charging Trump with obstruction of justice or violating the Emolument Clause, Nadler derived his articles from Trump’s actions on a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Democrats claim he pressured Zelensky to dig up dirt on his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. Any superficial analysis of Trump’s July 25 phone call with Zelensky indicates he wanted information on Ukrainian corruption, focused more on Joe’s 50-year-old son Hunter Biden. Joe said Dec. 8 he didn’t know what Hunter did on the board of Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian natural gas company from which he earned $150,000 a month.
House Democrats accuse Trump of interfering with the 2020 U.S. election because he allegedly sought information from Zelensky on Joe and 50-year-old Hunter Biden. Joe finds himself in a sticky wicket, not knowing how to answer questions about his son’s work on Burisma Holding’s board. Joe finds himself sounding more incredulous every time he’s asked about his son Hunter’s work in Ukraine or how he landed the lucrative job. Hunter already admitted Oct. 15 that he wouldn’t have gotten the Burisma board job without his Vice President father. Nadler insists that Trump “consistenly puts himself above the country,” referring to his phone call with Zelensky. Trump wanted information from Zelensky on Hunter Biden, not someone running for president in 2020. Approving two articles of impeachment, Nadler couldn’t decide whether of not Trump wanted information on Joe or Hunter.
Since Hunter, not Joe, was the one earning $150,000 a month on Burisma’s board, it’s logical to find out from Ukraine what role Hunter played. Yet if you listen to Nadler and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Trump only wanted to know about Joe Biden. Joe is one of 20 Democrats running for president, not, as Democrats present, the nominee of the Democrat Party. Whether Joe, today’s Democrat front-runner, becomes the nominee is anyone’s guess. Yet if you listen to Nadler and Schiff, it’s an open-and-shut case that Trump tried to influence the 2020 election. Democrats think that Joe or Hunter’s background is off-limits. House Democrats made their case in the Intel and Judiciary Committees by not allowing their witnesses to be cross-examined by GOP attorneys. Without cross-examination, Trump can’t be afforded due process, nor can the truth be known.
Democrats walk a razor’s edge pushing the impeachment case to trial in the Senate. Republican impeachment managers will be allowed to call witnesses, more fully exposing Biden’s role in Ukrainian corruption. If witnesses are cross-examined, it’s going to be much more difficulty for House Democrats to make their case against Trump. Nadler’s articles of impeachment, one about Abuse of Power and the other about Contempt of Congress, are so vague it’s impossible for any Republican—or independents for that matter—to vote to support Trump’s impeachment. Unlike the two prior impeachment proceedings, one involving former President Bill Clinton in 1998 and the other involving President Nixon in 1973, there was some bipartisan support. Nadler and Schiff have no bipartisan support, making Trump’s impeachment the most one-sided partisan event in U.S. history.
Writing articles of impeachment on abuse of power and obstructing Congress, Trump’s attorneys will have a field day defending him in the U.S. Senate. Democrats won’t like when Trump’s lawyers want Joe and Hunter Biden to testify. House Democrats already refused to allow Schiff to testify, since he’s the one that’s been trying to impeach Trump since taking office Jan. 20, 2017. Democrats won’t get to control the witness list once Trump mounts a vigorous defense, challenging the impeachment case. “President Trump’s persistent and continuing effort to coerce a foreign country to help him cheat to win an election is a clear and present danger to our free and fair elections and to our national security,” said Democrat Committee lawyer Daniel Goldman. Goldman knows that he’s proving nothing about Trump’s election interference or endangering U.S. national security.
