Team Trump: not a defense, but political theater of the absurd

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Wow. Just … Wow.

The “defense” presentation by Team Trump has been in no way a legal defense presented by competent legal counsel that one would expect to see from any attorney at an actual trial.

Instead, what we have bore witness to over the past couple of days is political theater of the absurd, a reality TV show scripted by the Trump White House and Fox News for consumption on “Trump TV.” This has been even worse than I originally imagined. Get ready for the Trump TV #Foxgasm of Russian propaganda about Ukraine and the Bidens.

And all the while the “potted plant,” Chief Justice John Roberts, just sits there in silence as a passive observer allowing this travesty of justice to play out before him in his “court.”

Watching this farce of a trial, I can’t help but be reminded of Al Pacino in this classic scene from “And Justice For All.” “You’re out of order! You’re out of order! The whole trial is out of order!”

In my humble opinion, every one of these Trump lawyers should be facing bar disciplinary proceedings for unethical and unprofessional conduct. But what to do about the Chief Justice? Clearly the constitutional remedy of impeachment has now been rendered a nullity, so long as lawless Republicans control the levers of power.

It appears that the Constitution has failed us, or more accurately, a corrupt criminal enterprise masquerading as a political party unbound by any attachment to the Constitution or the rule of law has failed us.

Rather than present exculpatory evidence in defense of Donald Trump, because they have no exculpatory evidence, Team Trump turns Senate trial into extended Obama-Biden attack:

President Donald Trump turned the Senate floor Monday into an alternate-reality impeachment of his political rivals: Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

For about two hours on Monday, Trump’s attorneys Pam Bondi and Eric Herschmann argued that it was Biden and Obama who should be investigated for corruption or abuse of power, laying out a case thick with political innuendo that has been sharply refuted by sworn witnesses during the House’s impeachment inquiry late last year.

Bondi said the focus on Biden, in particular, was made necessary by the House’s charges against Trump, which relied on contentions that Trump’s request for Ukraine to investigate Biden was “baseless” and meant to inflict political damage.

“We would prefer not to be discussing this, but the House managers have placed this squarely at issue so we must address it,” Bondi said.

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Trump’s lawyers, who on Saturday appeared to be making a nuanced appeal against conviction to those moderate GOP lawmakers — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah — seemed to shed the attempt by Monday afternoon, instead taking shots at Democrats that seemed meant to fulfill Trump’s promise to make his critics pay during the Senate trial.

Bondi and Herschmann also expounded at length on allegations against Biden and his son Hunter that they said merited a corruption probe, one Democrats have called baseless. The claims against Biden are at the heart of Trump’s effort to press Ukraine to investigate his political rivals. Democrats say Trump knew the charge to be baseless and simply wanted Ukraine to announce the probes as a way to damage Biden, a 2020 rival.

But the claims against Biden have become a fixture of Trump’s political attacks on his potential Democratic opponent, and the Trump legal team’s presentation was the most concerted case yet by the White House to push those charges into public view and hand Trump’s Senate allies new ammunition to defend him in the trial.

* * *

Trump’s team also took direct aim at Democrats’ heavy reliance on the role of Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani in their case against the president. Democrats charged that Giuliani aided Trump’s pressure campaign in Ukraine by ginning up smears against an anti-corruption U.S. ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, and prompting Trump to remove her.

Trump attorney Jane Raskin offered a short presentation defending Giuliani’s role — earning plaudits from the former New York City mayor on Twitter — by referring to him as an “internationally recognized expert on fighting corruption” and accusing Democrats of using his efforts in Ukraine as a “colorful distraction” to undermine Trump.

Perhaps most notably, the Trump legal team mostly ignored the new bombshell claims from John Bolton that have injected new uncertainty into the trial.

“We deal with transcript evidence. We deal with publicly available information. We do not deal with speculation, allegations that are not based on evidentiary standards at all,” Jay Sekulow, Trump’s lead personal attorney for the trial, said as he opened up the second day of his team’s opening arguments at the Senate’s trial.

“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

Trump’s lawyers, led by Sekulow and White House counsel Pat Cipollone, indicated early on that instead of addressing Bolton’s reported account of his conversations with Trump, they would continue presenting a defense of Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine — batting aside the House’s charges that Trump pressured Ukrainian officials to launch baseless investigations of his Democratic adversaries.

“They say their case is overwhelming and uncontested. It is not. They say they have proven each of the articles against president trump. They have not,” White House deputy counsel Michael Purpura said. “The facts and evidence of the case the house managers have brought exonerate the president.”

John Bolton’s book undercuts the Trump defense team’s claims that there are no firsthand witnesses.

Trump attorney Patrick Philbin made the most concerted case against witnesses, but only made passing references without mentioning Bolton by name.

“[T]he right conclusion is not that this body, this chamber, should try to re-do everything, to start bringing in new evidence and bring in witnesses,” he said.

This argument that it is too late now to hear from witnesses is total bullshit. The Senate has heard from witnesses in all 15 prior impeachment trials in the Senate.

Senators also heard from Kenneth Starr, the former independent counsel who pushed for Bill Clinton’s impeachment. Starr, a member of the president’s defense team, delivered lofty remarks comparing impeachment to “domestic war” and “hell.”

Sean Collins at Vox gets this exactly right: Ken Starr lamenting impeachments happening “all too frequently” is the death of irony.

Disreputable criminal defense attorney Alan Dershowitz closed Trump’s defense late Monday, arguing that both of Democrats’ articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — are not legitimate impeachable offenses.

Dershowitz was the only one to mention John Bolton by name late Monday night as he was wrapping up his presentation — but it was the only direct reference to the former national security adviser all day.

“Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense,” Dershowitz said.

Alan Dershowitz conceded at the end of his legal sophistry that he has a heterodox view at odds with the overwhelming legal consensus. He is on an island all by himself. Think of him in the same light as climate change denier William Happer, a member of Trump’s National Security Council, who rejects the scientific consensus of 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists on climate change. There is good reason why there is an overwhelming legal consensus.

One of the law professors that Dershowitz heavily relied on in his legal sophistry, Nikolas Bowie, says Dershowitz is wrong. Don’t Be Confused by Trump’s Defense. What He Is Accused of Are Crimes: Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress have long been considered criminal and merit impeachment. Dershowitz says “I am right, and everyone else is wrong! Wrong I tell you! Bwahahaha!”

Today, Team Trump wrapped up their opening arguments by going after the Mueller probe and various conservative fever dreams related to it. LIVEBLOG: Trump Defense Team Wades Deep Into Fever Swamp:

Jay Sekulow led observers down a rabbit hole of conspiracy-flavored Mueller report-era grievances.

He hit all the major points:

It was a hodgepodge of inflated or contorted arguments Republicans have long clung to to undermine the former special counsel and his report. Sekulow dove back in to try to impress upon listeners that Trump has been under attack from the beginning of his term.

For non-lawyers, this is known as irrelevant evidence. There is no Article of Impeachment based upon the Mueller Report.

Team Trump wrapped up their reality TV shit-show today, thank God.

We are now going to endure 16 hours of questions from Senators to the House managers and Trump’s defense counsels.

Only then do we get to the motions stage. Republicans will move to dismiss the trial, which reportedly will fail (don’t be so certain). Democrats will move again to hear from witnesses and to subpoena documents. Reporting today suggests there is currently a 50-50 split among Senators on witnesses, with only three potential Republican defections.

“Moscow Mitch” McConnell’s “coverup caucus” appears to be holding, for now.




1 thought on “Team Trump: not a defense, but political theater of the absurd”

  1. You have it exactly right; none of this is remotely resembles what the Constitution says is th Senate’s responsibility for an impeachment trial.

    It is an elaborate charade organized by #MoscowMitch to please an audience of one, who will thereupon crow how he was cleared of all wrongdoing at the SOTU. Which address, I expect is going to be as unhinged as any ever seen in our history.

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