The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

Impeachment – Senate Trial I

Suggestions have been made, mostly by Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell and Judiciary Committee Chairman Senator Lindsey Graham, that the Senate trial of the Impeachment of President Trump be an abbreviated effort until the Senators can determine the guilt or innocence of President Trump. I strongly disagree!

For the last three years, President Trump has been inundated with allegations of wrongdoing. False allegations and various other allegations of misconduct have been lodged repeatedly and ad nauseam by political opponents and biased news media. Do we remember Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 22-month, $35 million investigation, which failed to find Trump guilty of collusion with Russia in the 2016 election and failed to find actionable obstruction of justice pertaining to the non-crime of collusion? Do we remember the effort to subvert the Electoral College to prevent Trump from assuming office, or the first impeachment try during his initial week in office, or attempts to remove Trump using the ossified Logan Act or the emoluments clause of the Constitution, or the idea of declaring Trump unhinged, subject to removal by invoking the 25th Amendment? We also have the constant endeavors to subpoena Trump’s tax returns and to investigate his family, lawyers and friends? So much innuendo and suspicion have been raised, with so little supporting facts, that it has become difficult for the American people to separate fact from fiction. Normally, a House Impeachment inquiry would reveal the facts. But this House Impeachment Inquiry was not normal nor revealing of the facts (see my previous articles on Impeachment). In fact, the House Impeachment inquiry was more ludicrous than lucidity.

This was obviously done to tarnish the reputation and harm the reelection chances of President Trump, and an abbreviated Senate trial would play into this. A full Senate trial, where the Constitutional rights of President Trump are allowed, and the Rule of Law enforced, would allow for a full and transparent examination of all the facts. It would allow for a balanced presentation of President Trump’s actions, by both those opposing and those supporting President Trump. The Senate would insist on decorum, and a presentment of the issues in a deliberative and thoughtful manner from both sides, which would hopefully shed more evidence rather than innuendo.

I realize that the Senate is concerned about its repute. But much more is a stake than the Senates repute. Impeachment and removal of a President or Vice-President have constitutional consequences. And these constitutional consequences are of much more important than the repute of any branch, department, or agency of government. They directly impact the integrity of our government and, our elections, as well as setting the predicates for future impeachments. It is more important that we get it right than to get it over. You should also remember one of my Pearls of Wisdom “Do the Right Thing for All”:

When faced with a dilemma or predicament,
choose to do the right thing for all,
not the right thing for yourself.
For, although it may not work out well in the short term,
it will work out well in the long term.
- Mark Dawson

The American people need to know all the facts to determine the truth before they cast their votes in the 2020 Presidential election. Only after the facts have can we begin to have a free and fair Presidential election, and judgment on President Trump’s actions. A full trial in the Senate would accomplish this.

Addendum – After viewing and pondering the speech Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell gave on the Senate floor about the House Articles of Impeachment I found myself remembering one of my “Pearls of Wisdom - Be Prepared to Change Your Mind” and the words of wisdom of Benjamin Franklin:

“For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others.”

and

 “Doubt a little of your own infallibility.”

I now think that if the Senate can cogently explain to the American people why the House Articles of Impeachment do not rise to the level of “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors" and that the means the House utilized to investigate, draft, and pass these Articles of Impeachment were antithetical to Constitutional principles, due process, and the Rule of Law they then are within the Senate’s Duties and Responsibilities to reject these articles. And they would be doing the right thing.

Just as a judge may dismiss a prosecutor’s charges it the judge finds that the charges are fundamentally flawed then the Senate should dismiss the House Impeachment charges if they are fundamentally flawed. Therefore, a “Motion to Dismiss” should be formulated that clearly states the reasons for the dismissal, in the language that the American people can understand and support. If the Senate can pass this “Motion to Dismiss” then no further action would be required by the Senate on the House Articles of Impeachment.

I realize that this is unprecedented in Senate Impeachment trials, but the manner in which the House acted on this Impeachment is also unprecedented. Sometimes unprecedented actions require unprecedented responses. I believe that this is one of these times.