Dear Friends,
It seems to me… the impeachment of Trump has reached peak absurdity. It was ludicrous that Trump was not allowed to have council during his impeachment in the House, ask questions, was not allowed to face his accuser and was even denied witnesses, in total defiance of all US jurisprudence and the history of common law. Which proved the House trial was indeed a kangaroo court. Now that the “trial” is in the Senate, Trump’s allies are not even allowed to ask questions! The “judge” John Roberts is clearly biased in denying Rand Paul question, and by suppressing the name of the person who supposedly made the original complaint, Trump’s accuser. All of which adds up to the most biased, unlawful, unconstitutional, malicious and vile impeachment ever.
Impeachment is a remedy for a President who has become odious to the Constitution, not the administrative state or a political faction. Such a drastic action is only when a President has committed an actual crime. Like perjury, treason, murder, fraud, etc… serious crimes that impair his or her ability to function as President. It has usually been used as a political weapon, showing the maliciousness and duplicity of politicians. Progressive Republicans passed unconstitutional laws, then impeached Andrew Johnson for not following them. At least Johnson was accused of breaking a law, even though it was an unconstitutional usurpation of the Executive Branch’s authority, by the Legislature. Impeachment was supposed to be used to protect the republic… but instead it has become a political bludgeon.
Nixon was supposedly impeached for covering up someone else’s crime, but he was really impeached as payback, for prosecuting Alger Hiss. Alger Hiss was a deep stater who had passed to Truman from Roosevelt. He was accused by Whittaker Chambers of working for the Soviet Union… of being a Marxist. Whittaker Chambers was Alger Hiss’ Soviet handler and had been caught. Hiss had far too much political favor to be tried. It would be like someone prosecuting Hillary Clinton today for being a spy for China. It wouldn’t happen… no matter the evidence. A young up coming prosecutor just elected was willing to take on the establishment though, Richard Nixon. He prosecuted Hiss and earned the undying enmity of the progressive/Marxist faction. His impeachment was political payback.
Clinton lied under oath, which was the reason he was impeached. The facts are undisputed. The question upon which Clinton’s impeachment rested was, is perjury an impeachable offense? The US Senate at the time found, no, lying under oath is not an impeachable offense, and so Clinton was acquitted. Many have argued that since the lie was about Clinton sexually harassing an aid, and lies about such things are perfectly acceptable, as such, it wasn’t really perjury. Others argued that his lie put the nation at risk since it put Clinton at risk of blackmail. That argument was shown to be false, when Clinton was proven to have harassed an aid and then lied under oath, and nothing was done about it, showing that Clinton was and is above the law… undermining any blackmail argument.
The same senators today, who found that a felony offense was insufficient to impeach Clinton then, have turned on a dime, and now say that anything they dislike is an impeachable offense. Usually, someone has an epiphany that leads to such a profound change in their mental framework, there is a pivot point. Yet, in this case, the pivot point appears to be the election of Donald Trump. Which suggests… his impeachment is politically motivated, and not from some deep seated love of nation, but hatred, of Trump and our Constitution. Bringing us back to the original position, that this impeachment, by any standard, even our pathetic precedent, is absurdity writ large. Clearly political, and showing the administrative state and the faction that backs it, are psychopathically pathological.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
