AG BARR: COMEY & CREW RAN THE COUP! DURHAM’S PROBE IS MASSIVE! IMPEACHMENT MOVES TO SENATE-OR NOT?!

https://www.sgtreport.com/2019/12/a-plot-to-make-pelosi-president-now-adam-schiff-wants-to-go-after-vice-president-mike-pence/




A Plot To Make Pelosi President? Now Adam Schiff Wants To Go After Vice-President Mike Pence…

December 20, 2019



by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:

I was really hoping that this wouldn’t happen.  Within hours of President Trump being impeached by the House, the mainstream media was reporting that Adam Schiff “has declared war” on Mike Pence.  At this time of the year, most Americans are celebrating holidays and spending time with their families, but Adam Schiff continues to be deeply focused on his twisted obsession to take down the Trump administration.  When Rachel Maddow asked him if he was “actively looking at Vice President Mike Pence and his role in this scandal”, Schiff made it quite clear that he has targeted Pence.  Is Schiff doing this because he wants “justice”, or is there some deeper plot afoot?

Before we get into the specifics, let’s talk about a hypothetical scenario in which Nancy Pelosi could actually become the President.  If President Trump is removed from office by the Senate, Vice-President Mike Pence would move into the Oval Office and a replacement for Pence would be nominated.  But if Trump and Pence were both impeached and removed from office before a new Vice-President could be nominated and confirmed, then the next in line for the presidency would be Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
In other words, if Trump and Pence were both suddenly out of the picture, Nancy Pelosi would become the President of the United States.
We have never actually seen the speaker of the House become the president in such a manner, and such a scenario would appear to be exceedingly unlikely, but it could hypothetically happen.
Up to now, the efforts by the Democrats to get rid of Trump have not gone well.  According to a brand new survey that was just released, only 42 percent of all Americans support removing Trump from office at this point.  And it is likely that support for removing Vice-President Pence from office would be even lower.
So why would the Democrats even bother trying?
I certainly can’t explain why Schiff suddenly has such a desire to go after Pence, because it doesn’t seem to be rational.  According to the Daily Mail, Schiff has made the decision to declare “war” on Pence…

Quote :

House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff has declared war on Vice President Mike Pence, barely a week after his panel finished its hearings on the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
As an impeachment vote loomed Wednesday, Schiff demanded Pence’s office declassify documents that he claims could show the vice president knee-deep in the Ukraine scandal that has brought Trump to the brink.

What Schiff is particularly obsessed about is a phone call between Vice-President Pence and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on September 18th.
Pence’s adviser Jennifer Williams listened in on that call, and she testified about it behind closed doors to Schiff’s committee.  Her testimony was later classified, and Schiff has been badgering Pence to have it declassified.  The following comes from the National Review…

Quote :

Pence’s Russia adviser Jennifer Williams testified last month about the vice president’s September 18 phone call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Schiff requested ten days later that Pence declassify her testimony, contained in a November 26 letter from her lawyer, but Pence last week declined to do so in a letter to Schiff.

On Tuesday, Schiff sent a letter to Pence alleging that the testimony given by Williams “raises profound questions about your knowledge of the President’s scheme to solicit Ukraine’s interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election”.
In other words, Schiff is inferring that Vice-President Pence “abused his power” just like Trump supposedly did.
During a subsequent appearance on the Rachel Maddow Show, Schiff was specifically asked if he was “actively looking” at Vice-President Pence…

Quote :

Are you actively looking at Vice President Mike Pence and his role in this scandal? And should we expect further revelations either related to the vice president or related to the other core parts of these allegations that have resulted in this impeachment tonight?

In response, he gave an answer that was classic Schiff …

Quote :

Well, we have acquired a piece of evidence, classified submission by Jennifer Williams, something that she alluded to in her open testimony that in going back and looking through her records, she found other information that was pertinent to that phone call that we asked her about and made that submission. There is nothing that should be classified in that submission but yet, the vice president’s office has said they’re going to assert classification, or it’s classified.
It is not proper to classify something because it would be embarrassing or incriminating, and that summation does shed light on the vice president’s knowledge, and we think the American people should see it. Certainly, any senators in the trial should have access to it.

Schiff has got to realize that his actions are deeply dividing America, and the drama currently unfolding in Washington could set in motion a series of events that could tear this nation apart.
So why is he doing it?
Well, there is always the possibility that he could be so deluded that he actually believes that he is doing the right thing.  And if he truly believes that he is seeking to have justice done, then that would help to explain why he just won’t let this thing go.
Read More @ TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-12-19/trump-impeachment-delay-could-be-serious-problem-for-democrats


Trump Isn’t Impeached Until the House Tells the Senate
According to the Constitution, impeachment is a process, not a vote. 

By Noah Feldman
December 19, 2019, 1:35 PM PST
Don’t delay.
Don’t delay. Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a professor of law at Harvard University and was a clerk to U.S. 



Now that the House of Representatives has voted to impeach President Donald Trump, what is the constitutional status of the two articles of impeachment? Must they be transmitted to the Senate to trigger a trial, or could they be held back by the House until the Senate decides what the trial will look like, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi has hinted?

The Constitution doesn’t say how fast the articles must go to the Senate. Some modest delay is not inconsistent with the Constitution, or how both chambers usually work.

But an indefinite delay would pose a serious problem. Impeachment as contemplated by the Constitution does not consist merely of the vote by the House, but of the process of sending the articles to the Senate for trial. Both parts are necessary to make an impeachment under the Constitution: The House must actually send the articles and send managers to the Senate to prosecute the impeachment. And the Senate must actually hold a trial.

If the House does not communicate its impeachment to the Senate, it hasn’t actually impeached the president. If the articles are not transmitted, Trump could legitimately say that he wasn’t truly impeached at all.

That’s because “impeachment” under the Constitution means the House sending its approved articles of to the Senate, with House managers standing up in the Senate and saying the president is impeached.

As for the headlines we saw after the House vote saying, “TRUMP IMPEACHED,” those are a media shorthand, not a technically correct legal statement. So far, the House has voted to impeach (future tense) Trump. He isn’t impeached (past tense) until the articles go to the Senate and the House members deliver the message.

Once the articles are sent, the Senate has a constitutional duty to hold a trial on the impeachment charges presented. Failure for the Senate to hold a trial after impeachment would deviate from the Constitution’s clear expectation.

For the House to vote “to impeach” without ever sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial would also deviate from the constitutional protocol. It would mean that the president had not genuinely been impeached under the Constitution; and it would also deny the president the chance to defend himself in the Senate that the Constitution provides.

The relevant constitutional provisions are brief. Article I gives the House “the sole power of impeachment.” And it gives the Senate “the sole power to try all impeachments.” Article II says that the president “shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

Putting these three different provisions together yields the conclusion that the only way to remove the president while he is in office is if the House impeaches him and the Senate tries and convicts him.

The provisions say nothing about timing. Taken literally, they don’t directly say that articles of impeachment passed by the House must be sent to the Senate. But the framers’ definition of impeachment assumed that impeachment was a process, not just a House vote.

The framers drafted the constitutional provisions against the backdrop of impeachment as it had been practiced in England, where the House of Commons impeached and the House of Lords tried the impeachments. The whole point of impeachment by the Commons was for the charges of impeachment to be brought against the accused in the House of Lords.

Strictly speaking, “impeachment” occurred – and occurs -- when the articles of impeachment are presented to the Senate for trial. And at that point, the Senate is obliged by the Constitution to hold a trial.

What would make that trial fair is a separate question, one that deserves its own discussion. But we can say with some confidence that only the Senate is empowered to judge the fairness of its own trial – that’s what the “sole power to try all impeachments” means.

If the House votes to “impeach” but doesn’t send the articles to the Senate or send impeachment managers there to carry its message, it hasn’t directly violated the text of the Constitution. But the House would be acting against the implicit logic of the Constitution’s description of impeachment.

A president who has been genuinely impeached must constitutionally have the opportunity to defend himself before the Senate. That’s built into the constitutional logic of impeachment, which demands a trial before removal.

To be sure, if the House just never sends its articles of impeachment to the Senate, there can be no trial there. That’s what the “sole power to impeach” means. 

But if the House never sends the articles, then Trump could say with strong justification that he was never actually impeached. And that’s probably not the message Congressional Democrats are hoping to send.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:
Noah Feldman at nfeldman7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Sarah Green Carmichael at sgreencarmic@bloomberg.net