by Battleship Wisconsin
It is difficult to believe the Democrats in the House of Representatives wouldn’t follow through with their threats of impeachment against President Trump.
Sure, the Democrats might lose big if they do follow through with their threats. But they will almost certainly lose the whole ball game if they don’t. So they will do it.
The question now becomes, how will the Democrats go about getting the articles of impeachment passed in the House of Representatives while at the same time leaving their own hands as free of dirt as they can possibly manage?
The Constitution doesn’t include a detailed process for the House of Representatives to follow in passing articles of impeachment against a president.
Based on what Sundance has described so far, here is a rough outline of how I think it will be done:
— Nancy Pelosi revises the House rules, and hires a staff of Lawfare Alliance attorneys, so that House Democrats can perform their own investigations and interview their own witnesses without the participation of minority Republicans. (Action now complete.)
— The staff of hired lawyers, working for the majority Democrats inside their assigned committees, assemble the draft articles of impeachment, including of a list of allegations and supporting evidence consisting of witness testimony plus whatever documentary material can be gathered (Action now in progress. Completion Date TBD.))
— The draft articles are combined into one bill of impeachment, and it is submitted to the House Judiciary Committee along with the assembled body of alleged supporting evidence. (Completion Date TBD.)
— Within a day of the bill’s submission to the House Judiciary Committee, a discharge petition is filed for release of the bill onto the House floor without further committee debate. The discharge petition itself includes strict limits concerning how much time can be spent on the House floor debating the bill of impeachment, if the discharge petition is approved. (Completion Date TBD.)
— A simple majority vote of the full House approves the discharge petition, and a time-limited debate over the articles of impeachment immediately commences on the House floor. After the allotted time for debate has been consumed, the full House then approves the articles of impeachment by simple majority vote. (Completion Date TBD.)
What does it all add up to?
Slam bam, thanky ma’am, Nancy Pelosi has now engineered a quick and relatively painless impeachment of President Trump. Painless at least up to that point, anyway. What happens next is now in President Trump’s and the Senate’s hands to figure out.
If the President’s lawyers challenge the bill of impeachment in court, the Democrats will accuse him of using the judicial system to assist in a coverup and an obstruction of justice.
If the Senate refuses to take up the bill of impeachment, because the House didn’t follow long-standing procedure and protocol, the Democrats will then accuse Senate Republicans of assisting in a coverup and an obstruction of justice.
If the Senate accepts the bill of impeachment, and President Trump is subsequently acquitted in a Senate trial, then the Democrats will once again accuse Senate Republicans of assisting in a coverup and an obstruction of justice.
But it’s worse than that.
If Senate Republicans do allow a trial to go forward, then they have assisted Nancy Pelosi in creating a quick and relatively painless means for the House of Representatives to impeach any duly-elected president.
Plus they’ve set a precedent for how to quickly impeach and send to trial any president the House majority doesn’t happen to like.
This is why Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats will move quickly forward with impeachment. Their goal is to paralyze the Trump presidency and to win big in November, 2020, with help from a media-driven impeachment circus that just goes on and on and on.
They’ve calculated that the odds are in their favor; that the rewards are worth the exceptional risks; and that they are ready, willing, and able to take the mother of all high stakes political gambles.