I’m not a lawyer of any kind, let alone a constitutional lawyer, but I read this putting on my British lawyers’ wig and could only come up with one response which I decided to put into the illustration above.
I thought putting on the British peruke was appropriate since we fought a war to free ourselves from being ruled by a monarch.
Now Trump’s lawyers are arguing that the president is essentially a monarch who is above the law. They twist the ultimate law of the land, the Constitution, into a pretzel to call the impeachment charges a partisan exercise with no substance in law.
My impression is that this document would be an embarrassment to any constitutional scholar if only because it is prefaced by stating that the Articles of Impeachment are “a dangerous attack on the rights of the American people to freely choose their president.”
Of course they are nothing of the kind. They do not attack any American rights, let alone the right to freely choose a president.
These allegedly top lawyers go on to write that the impeachment is “a highly partisan and reckless obsession.”
Obsession?
I’m not a lawyer but I am a retired psychotherapist qualified to define certain terms: Obsessions are repeated thoughts, urges, or mental images that cause anxiety. If the Democrats have obsessions they are about how Trump is recklessly undermining the rule of law and the underpinnings of American democracy.
Just the fact that this word is used in what is now an historic document is cringeworthy.
It goes on with the augment being put forth by Allen Dershowitz and totally debunked by the legal scholars not in the tank for Trump that the grounds for impeachment are unconstitutional because they fail to allege any crime, let alone a high crime or misdemeanor.
They also use as one of their primary “proofs” that Trump “categorically denied and unequivocally denied each and every allegation.” They note that the president said “no way, I would never do that” as if this is a proof because, well, it comes from President Pinocchio. I’d say this was laughable even if the defendant in this case wasn’t known to be a world class liar.
Furthermore according to them he must be innocent is that he told a few people (Zelensky, Sondland and Republican Sen. Ron Johnson) that he was innocent.
I could go on, but then, what would be the point?
They spell Zelensky with one Y. It reads to me like it was actually written by competent lawyers rather than public relations hacks pandering to Trump’s base. I doubt that the typical smirking bug-eyed MAGA rally goer will ever read it.
The Democrat’s memorandum quotes George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Constitutional Convention member George Mason, and references Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Trump’s lawyers’ missive quotes Donald Trump, the defendant.
Correction: I previously wrote that they misspelled President Zelensky. In fact they used the spelling with two Y’s on the official Ukrainian website. Perhaps this is because they believed there was a legal reason for doing this.