We Now Have a Genuine Constitutional Crisis spectator.org/we-now-have-a-…
The Democrats won’t permit the orderly transfer of power that should have occurred after their 2016 loss.
President Trump has been investigated relentlessly by the Democrats and their surrogates since he was elected, and no credible evidence has been found that he has abused his office.
Yet @SpeakerPelosi gratuitously insists that he has committed all manner of offenses, and she has arbitrarily launched an “impeachment inquiry” without authorization by the full House — the first time this has been done in the history of the republic.
The House has initiated impeachment inquiries against three presidents: Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. All were authorized by a vote of the full House.
As the White House letter points out:
“Your inquiry is constitutionally invalid and a violation of due process.”
“Your inquiry is constitutionally invalid and a violation of due process.”
“In the history of our Nation, the House of Representatives has never attempted to launch an impeachment inquiry against the President without a majority of the House taking political accountability for that decision by voting to authorize such a dramatic constitutional step.”
“Here, House leadership claims to have initiated the gravest inter-branch conflict contemplated under our Constitution by means of nothing more than a press conference at which the Speaker of the House simply announced an “official impeachment inquiry.”
This is by no means the only defect in the Democratic inquiry process noted in the White House letter. @TheDemocrats have also denied the president basic due process rights: the ability to confront witnesses testifying against him, the right to call his own witnesses...
... and the right to have the assistance of counsel. Democrats are also deposing witnesses in secret. In essence they are denying the president they fundamental rights guaranteed all Americans by the Constitution.
The White House letter describes this egregious behavior thus:
“... the Committees have not established any procedures affording the President even the most basic protections demanded by due process under the Constitution.…”
“... the Committees have not established any procedures affording the President even the most basic protections demanded by due process under the Constitution.…”
“These due process rights are not a matter of discretion for the Committees to dispense with at will. To the contrary, they are constitutional requirements. The Supreme Court has recognized that due process protections apply to all congressional investigations.”
“Indeed, it has been recognized that the Due Process Clause applies to impeachment proceedings.”
Democrats frequently speak of “rights,” yet they are unwilling to recognize those of Donald Trump — as if the president of the United States is not entitled to the protections guaranteed every American by the Constitution.
Nor are they willing to live up to their own rhetoric on impeachment.
.@RepJerryNadler, the Democratic Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, once stood up in the House and stated, “There must never be a narrowly voted impeachment or an impeachment supported by one of our major political parties and opposed by the other.”
Neither Nadler nor his fellow Democrats seem to remember that high-minded principle.
