Thread by @usacsmret

“Unlike what happened in the House, which was a departure significantly from past precedent on impeachment procedure, I expect the Senate to rely on precedent,” @TomJipping says. dailysign.al/2WzVVFQ via @FredLucasWH @DailySignal

@TomJipping @FredLucasWH @DailySignal The 1999 trial of President Bill Clinton lasted a month, and was a “sham trial,” said former Rep. James Rogan, R-Calif., one of the House impeachment managers and author of the 2011 book “Catching Our Flag: Behind the Scenes of a Presidential Impeachment.”

@TomJipping @FredLucasWH @DailySignal Rogan was critical of then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, a fellow Repubican, for short-circuiting the trial. “It wasn’t a trial and Trent Lott told me, he said, ‘It’s going to look like a trial. Everybody’s going to call it a trial,’” Rogan said

@TomJipping @FredLucasWH @DailySignal “It’s the only trial I know of in American history where the prosecutors were not allowed by the jury to call a single witness to prove their case. The Senate voted in secret, 100 to zero, to prevent the House managers from calling one single live witness to prove their case.”

@TomJipping @FredLucasWH @DailySignal Rogan, now a California Superior Court judge, said Lott, of Mississippi, chiefly had political concerns because the Clinton impeachment was unpopular.
Rogan recalled that Lott said: ...

@TomJipping @FredLucasWH @DailySignal ....We don’t care if you have pictures of Bill Clinton standing over a dead woman with a smoking gun. The polls say they didn’t want him impeached. You guys impeached him and for doing that you just lost your majority.

@TomJipping @FredLucasWH @DailySignal We’ve got a majority of Republicans in the Senate. We have 55 Republicans. Seven of my Republicans are up for election in 2000, are in tough races.

@TomJipping @FredLucasWH @DailySignal You guys have just jumped off a cliff. We’re not jumping off a cliff. We’re … going to put this thing to bed, and you’re going to be sorry.

@TomJipping @FredLucasWH @DailySignal Fox News Channel host Laura Ingraham, a lawyer who once clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas, said Wednesday of the Senate majority leader: “McConnell can and should aggressively push for a blisteringly short impeachment trial.”

@TomJipping @FredLucasWH @DailySignal Constitutional lawyer and former top Reagan administration Justice Department official Mark Levin has said the Senate should go a step further, as it has the authority to stop the trial.

@TomJipping @FredLucasWH @DailySignal “The Senate must not allow itself to be the plaything of Pelosi and the House Democrats, who are violating every rule,” Levin, a bestselling author, said on his popular radio show earlier this month.

@TomJipping @FredLucasWH @DailySignal “And only the Senate has the power to police what House Democrats are doing,” Levin said. “No other body. No court, not the executive branch, only the Senate.”

@TomJipping @FredLucasWH @DailySignal Although the Senate might have the authority to do so, at least for political reasons, senators will want to appear to give the impeachment charges a fair hearing, Stewart said.

@TomJipping @FredLucasWH @DailySignal “They will be politically sensitive to the appearance of looking unfair,” Stewart said. “They certainly don’t want to run the risk of being accused of ignoring their constitutional obligations.” Such a move would be similar to a court’s dismissing an indictment before a trial.

@TomJipping @FredLucasWH @DailySignal From a practical standpoint, it would spare the country a waste of time, argued Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder and national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots, a conservative group.

@TomJipping @FredLucasWH @DailySignal “[The] Senate should move quickly to vote on a resolution dismissing the House impeachment charges by a simple majority vote,” Martin wrote earlier this month in USA Today.

@TomJipping @FredLucasWH @DailySignal “This would spare the nation the political agony of a drawn-out Senate trial, where the outcome is a foregone conclusion and the only result will be further polarization.”