Blindsiding 73-year-old President Donald Trump’s defense team on the first day of his impeachment trial, 59-year-old House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) came out swinging, calling Trump’s action on Ukraine the biggest cover-up in U.S. history. Schiff didn’t waste any time slamming Republicans, sticking with Democrat talking points that Trump committed impeachable offenses in his July 25 phone call with 40-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Even though Zelensky said Trump did not pressure him for anything, Schiff’s impeachment articles revolve around Trump strong-arming Zelensky for dirt on 77-year-old former Vice President Joe Biden and his 50-year-old son, Hunter, accusing Trump of interfering in the 2020 presidential election. But whatever Trump wanted from Zelensky, in exchange for $391 million in military aid, it wasn’t about Joe.
Based the July 25 transcript of the call, it’s clear that Trump wanted to follow-up on Ukrainian corruption, not, as Schiff says, to interfere with the election. After all, Joe was not the Democrat Party’s nominee, nor was Hunter running for elective office. If Trump wanted to find out about Hunter’s $50,000 to $150,000 salary on Ukraine’s natural gas company Burisma Holding’s board, what’s wrong with that? Schiff acts like Trump was only focused on Joe because he was a potential Democrat nominee, not looking into Ukraine’s history of corruption, a real problem when handing over $391 million in military aid. Schiff tells the Senate jury that Trump undermined U.S. national security by withholding funds from Ukraine for over a month. Schiff claims Ukraine was at war with Russia in the Donbass region, needing the lethal military aid provided by the U.S. to ward off Russian aggression.
Yet any cursory look at recent Ukraine history, since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Crimea March 1, 2014, former President Barack Obama refused to supply former Ukrianian President Petro Poroshenko with lethal U.S. aid. Schiff, and his Democrat colleagues, say Trump endangered U.S. national security by not releasing lethal military aid to Zelensky. How preposterous. Zelensky was not actively involved in a shooting war with Russia, he was actively involved in diplomacy with Moscow. Democrats’ narrative of how Trump threatens U.S. national security by delaying Ukraines’s military aid is foolish, bereft of any facts. Schiff threw White House Attorney Pat Cipolone for a loop, opening a procedural hearing with laying out Democrats impeachment case against Trump. Yet when you examine the facts, Schiff looks foolish making his arguments.
Schiff doesn’t want to acknowledge that the president under his Article 2 powers doesn’t have to respond in intrusive Congressional subpoenas, just because Democrats seek documents to make their case. Schiff spent most of his opening statement insisting he needed more witnesses and documents to prove his case. Yet when he finished two articles of impeachment Dec. 13, 2019, he insisted he had everything he needed to prosecute Trump’s impeachment. Schiff accuses Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) of preventing him from prosecuting Trump by not calling new witnesses or documents. McConnell made it clear, he would not redo House Democrats’ impeachment case against Trump in the impeachment trial. Schiff hammered away about what a sham the trial would be by not allowing him new witnesses and documents, something he calls a cover-up.
Schiff unloaded both barrels on Trump’s defense team who did not plan to put on Trump’s full-throated defense today. That starts tomorrow when emeritus Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz gets his chance to turn Schiff’s impeachment articles on its head. Cipolone only hinted at what’s to come. Dershowitz plans to ask the Senate to toss out Schiff’s impeachment case because it’s unconstitutional. Dershowitz believes that Schiff’s two articles, one on abuse of power and the other on obstruction of Congress, do not meet the Constitutional threshold of high-crimes-and-misdemeanors. House Democrats refused to charge Trump with “treason, bribery of other crimes and misdemeanors,” something required by the Constitution. Dershowitz thinks House Democrats made up their definition of high-crimes-and-misdemeanors, based on Trump’s phone call with Zelensky.
Schiff unloaded everything he had in today’s opening statements, giving Trump’s defense team the opportunity to refute the charges. Senators on both sides of the aisle look dug into their partisan positions, promising no movement, especially from Republicans. Democrats know their impeachment case is on shaky ground, demanding new witnesses and documents. Republicans aren’t stonewalling Democrats, they’re simply saying put on you case that led to your Dec. 13, 2019 impeachment articles. Schiff doesn’t want to hear his two articles of impeachment are unconstitutional. In Schiff’s mind, House Democrats have the Article 1 authority to impeach Trump for anything they wish. Yet without one Republican backing Schiff’s case, it breaks new ground for impeachment trials that had at least some Republicans and Democrats joining forces on impeachment. Schiff’s case looks way too political.
