Opinion | by Jonathan Davis
The one thing that kept the Democratic Party united for the past four years was members’ unhealthy, unhinged, and totally uncalled for hatred of Donald Trump.
The man lived rent-free in their heads since before his term began, and now that he’s no longer in office, these lunatics still can’t get him off their minds: They seek to punish him not for anything he has actually done wrong, but for everything he did right while at the same time exposing them and the RINO class as a failed anachronistic party machines full of elitist, woke snobs who haven’t given two thoughts about ‘ordinary Americans’ in decades.
Last week, Democratic impeachment managers ‘invited’ Trump to testify at his second sham trial, but through his legal counsel, the former president rightfully declined. And why? Because he would have been walking into a perjury trap a mile wide — everyone knows that, as did the morons who asked him to appear.
But apparently, it was an ‘offer’ Trump was not supposed to refuse; like Mafioso of past lore, Democrats took deep offense to the former president’s decision and now seek to punish him for it.
Democrats reiterated Monday a threat to punish former President Donald Trump for not testifying at the impeachment trial in the Senate, which begins Tuesday. … The Democrats were responding to Trump’s lawyers’ claim that Democrats’ rushed impeachment, which defied all previous procedural conventions governing impeachment in the House, denied the president the constitutional due process of law.
In a short response to a 75-page filing by Trump’s legal team, the Pelosi-handpicked impeachment team noted: “[T]he House has invited President Trump to voluntarily testify under oath, yet President Trump immediately rejected that opportunity to tell his story. The House will establish at trial that this decision to avoid testifying supports a strong adverse inference regarding President Trump’s actions (and inaction) on January 6.”
Say what? By not testifying, that’s a black mark against the former president?
Democrats don’t care much for the Constitution they swore to uphold but it nevertheless is the country’s governing document and it spells out clearly in the Fifth Amendment that no American is obligated to testify in a manner that might incriminate themselves.
But then, it was all a Mafia deal anyway.
“If you decline this invitation, we reserve any and all rights [sic], including the right [sic] to establish at trial that your refusal to testify supports a strong adverse inference regarding your actions (and inaction) on January 6, 2021,” lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland wrote to Trump’s attorneys last week.
Real constitutional scholars like Jonathan Turley noted that Raskin’s BS demand and claim that refusal amounts to a de facto admission of guilt puts flaming jet fuel to centuries’ worth of American jurisprudence:
[T]he statement of House manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., this week was breathtaking. A former law professor, Raskin declared that the decision of Trump not to testify in the Senate could be cited or used by House managers as an inference of his guilt — a statement that contradicts not just our constitutional principles but centuries of legal writing. … The statement conflicts with one of the most precious and revered principles in American law that a refusal to testify should not be used against an accused party. … Central to this right is the added protection that the silence of an accused cannot be used against him in the way suggested by Raskin. There was a time when members of Congress not only respected this rule but fought to amplify it. … The Supreme Court has been adamant that the type of inference sought by Raskin is abhorrent and abusive in courts of law.
Speaking of unconstitutional actions, the fact that the Senate is even having a trial violates the founding principles involving impeachment. The Constitution directly states that the remedy is removal from office; Trump’s already gone.
It also calls for the chief justice of the Supreme Court to officiate; but Justice John Roberts isn’t officiating.
But this isn’t about proper constitutionality or doing impeachment right. It’s about meting out a punishment, which Democrats hope ultimately will be to disallow Trump from ever running for the presidency again (because they know he’ll win).
Author: Jonathan Davis
Source: Trending Politics: Bloodthirsty Democrats Threaten Trump For Refusing To Testify At Impeachment Trial
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