The Impeachment Process Has Officially Begun (12 Viewers)

[Andrus]

By Laura Bassett

After months of internal arguing among Democrats over whether to impeach President Donald Trump, the dam is finally breaking in favor of trying to remove him from office. The Washington Post reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would announce a formal impeachment inquiry on Tuesday, following a bombshell report that Trump illegally asked Ukraine’s government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, one of his political opponents. (He essentially admitted to having done so over the weekend.)

“Now that we have the facts, we’re ready,” Pelosi said Tuesday morning at a forum hosted by The Atlantic. At 5 p.m. the same day, she was back with more. "The actions taken to date by the president have seriously violated the constitution, especially when the president says Article Two says I can do whatever I want," referring to the segment of the Constitution that defines the power of the executive branch of the government. Pelosi's message was that checks and balances of those branches are just as central to the Constitution. And one more thing: "Today, I am announcing the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry," she said at a conference broadcast on Twitter by the Huffington Post. ...

Read the Full Story - InStyle

 

[Maxp]

I don't really care that is being held behind closed doors. All they do when it is public is grandstand for 5 minutes and argue about who "controls the time."

I am more concerned about the leaking, the POTUS and agencies not being allowed counsel, not being able to call witnesses, not being able to subpoena documents, etc.

What documents do they need to subpoena? All these documents are part of the executive branch. They already have access to everything. Please, let's not forget that there are Republicans on these three committees involved in the inquiry.

 

[Taurus]

I am more concerned about the leaking, the POTUS and agencies not being allowed counsel, not being able to call witnesses, not being able to subpoena documents, etc.

You have this whole thing exactly backwards.
The "defense" will have its chances once the "case" is actually brought and a vote to impeach is recorded. Until then, it's an investigation. The Executive already has the documents being subpoenaed, the witnesses being called are there to provide testimony on what they know, NOT to convict or exonerate.

Bill Clinton went through this not too long ago, you can easily look up how it's done.

 

[Beach Friends]

You have this whole thing exactly backwards.
The "defense" will have its chances once the "case" is actually brought and a vote to impeach is recorded. Until then, it's an investigation. The Executive already has the documents being subpoenaed, the witnesses being called are there to provide testimony on what they know, NOT to convict or exonerate.

Bill Clinton went through this not too long ago, you can easily look up how it's done.

So, you would be in agreement that we should do this the way it was done when Clinton was impeached?

 

[Maxp]

So, you would be in agreement that we should do this the way it was done when Clinton was impeached?

Do you accept that the executive has the documents you say should be subpoenaed?

Do you accept that the three committees doing the inquiries have Republican members sitting in and taking part in the inquiries?

 

[LA - L.A.]

Just so everyone is on the same page and fully aware of the historical facts, if the investigation into Trump is to be done the same way as it was for Clinton, it would mean that the House committees would hand off the investigation to a special counsel.

During the special counsel's investigation, Trump would still not be able to have his counsel sit in on anyone else's testimony, cross examine witnesses, call witnesses or subpoena documents. This was true for both of the investigations into Nixon and Clinton. The House is not required to hand off the investigation to a special counsel.

I think people are getting confused as to where we are at in the process. Trump is not currently under impeachment. Trump is being investigated to determine whether or not Articles of Impeachment should be filed against him. At this point he's only being investigated. At the conclusion of the investigations, a decision will be made based on the findings of the investigation as to whether or not to file an Article of Impeachment against Trump.

If the decision is not to file Articles of Impeachment, then Trump has nothing to defend himself against. If Articles are filed against Trump, then all the members of the House will be given an opportunity to present their case for or against the Articles of Impeachment. We have not reached that step yet.

EDITED: Forgot to dispel one of the biggest myths. Republicans are not being shut out of the House investigation. Republicans who sit on the three House committees conducting the investigation have been sitting in on every minute of every hearing and have been given equal time to cross examine the witnesses. There is no secret underground investigation.

 

[LA - L.A.]

Here's an article on the Supreme Court's ruling regarding a case involving an impeached federal judge. It's discusses some relevant issues regarding the constitutional process and power of impeachment.

The other ‘Nixon’ leaves ultimate responsibility for Trump’s removal with Congress | CNN Politics

President Donald Trump has been trying to avert impeachment, tweeting furiously to influence public opinion and predicting that any legal battle could go all the way up to the US Supreme Court.

www.cnn.com

 

[MT15]

I don't really care that is being held behind closed doors. All they do when it is public is grandstand for 5 minutes and argue about who "controls the time."

I am more concerned about the leaking, the POTUS and agencies not being allowed counsel, not being able to call witnesses, not being able to subpoena documents, etc.

Let’s look at the leaking. I could be wrong, but I don’t think we have a bunch of leaks so much as we have members giving their opinions on how the hearings are going. Each witness’s opening statement has been released, and that has been pretty consistent. The rest is just Committee member’s opinions being asked for and given.

As for the ability to issue subpoenas from minority members, well, the Republicans are the ones who changed the rules on that when they were in the majority. There has been an effort to get rid of some of the guard rails that have served the Congress well for decades recently. This has been done by both sides. I’m hoping the Republicans will learn from this coming back to bite them.

 

[samiam5211]

The subject of an investigation doesn't have any access to the investigation until they are charged. I am not sure why this is so hard for people to understand.

If the FBI is investigating El Chapo, they don't have to keep his lawyers in the loop.

 

[st dude]

This is a really good explanation why that stunt pulled by some Republicans with the blessing of the President was such a bad idea, and was harmful to national security. It’s a whole twitter thread written by someone who knows about the security of SCIF rooms.

MT, I thought you would get a kick out of Laura's tweet on the stunt that is being retweeted a lot, even Bette Midler rewtweeted her:

 

[wardorican]

Just so everyone is on the same page and fully aware of the historical facts, if the investigation into Trump is to be done the same way as it was for Clinton, it would mean that the House committees would hand off the investigation to a special counsel.

During the special counsel's investigation, Trump would still not be able to have his counsel sit in on anyone else's testimony, cross examine witnesses, call witnesses or subpoena documents. This was true for both of the investigations into Nixon and Clinton. The House is not required to hand off the investigation to a special counsel.

I think people are getting confused as to where we are at in the process. Trump is not currently under impeachment. Trump is being investigated to determine whether or not Articles of Impeachment should be filed against him. At this point he's only being investigated. At the conclusion of the investigations, a decision will be made based on the findings of the investigation as to whether or not to file an Article of Impeachment against Trump.

If the decision is not to file Articles of Impeachment, then Trump has nothing to defend himself against. If Articles are filed against Trump, then all the members of the House will be given an opportunity to present their case for or against the Articles of Impeachment. We have not reached that step yet.

EDITED: Forgot to dispel one of the biggest myths. Republicans are not being shut out of the House investigation. Republicans who sit on the three House committees conducting the investigation have been sitting in on every minute of every hearing and have been given equal time to cross examine the witnesses. There is no secret underground investigation.

In the case of Clinton, I believe the DOJ started the investigation, years later Starr asked to expand the scope, then he delivered a report to congress. Not sure if or when congress authorized the special counsel or it was just the DOJ.

 

[wardorican]

I caught part of this on the way to work.

The Republican Response to the Impeachment Inquiry 2019-10-24 | The Takeaway | WNYC Studios

We hear from a Republican strategist on the ongoing impeachment inquiry.

www.wnycstudios.org

 

[V Chip]

EDITED: Forgot to dispel one of the biggest myths. Republicans are not being shut out of the House investigation. Republicans who sit on the three House committees conducting the investigation have been sitting in on every minute of every hearing and have been given equal time to cross examine the witnesses. There is no secret underground investigation.

Just quoting for emphasis.

The ridiculous idea that this is secret and "one side" is being left out keeps being reiterated by those who get their news from Politicians instead of people who actually know their shirt.

 

[V Chip]

MT, I thought you would get a kick out of Laura's tweet on the stunt that is being retweeted a lot, even Bette Midler rewtweeted her:

OffTopic...

I also saw a tweet of hers this week with a puppy and a silly man.

 

[MT15]

OffTopic...

I also saw a tweet of hers this week with a puppy and a silly man.

I saw that one too! That puppy sure loves his human, what a cutie!

 

[st dude]

OffTopic...

I also saw a tweet of hers this week with a puppy and a silly man.

Lol. You know we lost our two pups recently which has been hard on the whole fam. So when we got our new pup Laura flew in to meet her and has turned our pup into an internet sensation. Her tweet of our pup greeting me in the morning got over 100k views! It’s crazy. She is in my lap now trying to devour my leg, she is alternating the sweetest pup there is and an absolute terrorist, chewing anything and everything in her path.


Laura is on cnn tomorrow btw, Brooke Baldwin invited her. That’s nice for her, she doesn’t get on cnn too often. I think it’s about an article she wrote about women key campaign positions. Some lady on Trumps staff criticized her article because it didn’t include women on his staff. Lol.

 

[N.O.Bronco]

Just quoting for emphasis.

The ridiculous idea that this is secret and "one side" is being left out keeps being reiterated by those who get their news from Politicians instead of people who actually know their shirt.

Yep, once again the aphorism holds, if you have the facts on your side, pound the facts, if you have the law on your side, pound the law, if you have neither, pound the table.

Republicans(many of which could have been in the hearing) screaming about process and storming a bi-partisan closed door hearing, a process they defended the legitimacy of for 6 years investigating Benghazi a dozen times, to have a pizza party in a desperate ploy, is pounding the table about as hard as you can.

 

[wardorican]

The Takeaway with Tanzina Vega was pretty good this morning (Thursday) I got to catch a chunk of it on the way to work, but not all of it. They had a Republican Strategist on, who was actually somewhat reasonable and measured in his overall outlook.

direct link to mp3

https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/audio.wnyc.org/ttp/ttp102419.mp3

The Takeaway

A fresh alternative in daily news featuring critical conversations, live reports from the field, and listener participation. The Takeaway provides a breadth and depth of world, national, and regional news coverage that is unprecedented in public media.

www.npr.org

OCTOBER 24, 2019
The Republican Response to the Impeachment Inquiry 2019-10-24

 

[superchuck500]