The House committee chairmen leading the impeachment inquiry are prepped to release more subpoenas for executive branch officials as early as Thursday, after a brief pause for Jewish High Holy Days.
How about holding people in contempt of Congress?
Start peppering Washington with them!
Enough with the subpoenas already - start arresting people⌠ignoring a subpoena would land me in jail in a heartbeat. Itâs time for these asswipes to be held to the same standards as the âlittle people.â
Iâm sure Trump would like even more toilet paper.
Whip that thing out!
The situation has been clear for some time. Itâs called a constitutional crisis. Our institutions have collapsed and the rule of law and principles of constitutional co-equality no longer apply to the Republican administration.
Arrests for contempt of Congress wonât happen. The optics and practicalities of dragging Giuliani into a makeshift cell against a backdrop of rightwing rage are too negative. Itâs a fantasy. It would only conceivably work if Dems has been saying for months, if not years, that the GOP is a criminal enterprise. They havenât even been saying it for a day.
All that can be done is:
The efficacy of these measures will be purely political. That will depend almost completely on the narrative that emerges. The narrative is determined by media coverage. Media coverage will be largely determined by Democratic messaging v GOP messaging.
Unless something changes, GOP messaging will win even though Democrats have caught the president red-handed with his pants around his ankles while wearing a striped sweater and a Zorro mask. Why? Because the GOP has already rolled out its story (coup, regicide etc) while Democrats have not. The GOP story is absurdâbut itâs dynamic and easily understood. Itâs like a terrible movie that somehow becomes a blockbuster. Dems meanwhile are hoping to win the Dubrovnik Film Festival grand jury prize.
Weâre not there yet; when the administration starts defying court orders then weâll have a crisis.
Note to American Allies World Wide:
You cannot trust republican presidents. Ask the Kurds.
But you better hurry, before their genocide by the Turkish is complete.
And, trump, back that ass up.
This is correct way to proceed. Leave no room for any Judge or Jury to overturn any decision against Trump by way of Appeal. Dot the âiâsâ and cross all the âtâsâ and bury the WH in iron-clad subpoenas.
I know itâs not what the âinstant gratification crowdâ wants; They want blood and they want it NOW.
But, you must remember; âThe wheels of justice grind slowly.â
It took TWO YEARS for the Impeachment Inquiry to uncover enough evidence to force Nixon to resign.
Only 3 months before he resigned, Nixon still had a 65% approval rating, and was being loudly protected and supported by the Republicans in Congress.
Once the SCOTUS ordered him to turn over the WH Tapes (which nobody had even known about at the beginning of the Inquiry) it was all over for him and things disintegrated quickly for Nixon.
The only difference here is; The AGâs at the time refused to participate in his coverups and resigned instead of doing as he demanded by firing the Special Prosecutor. Eventually a junior lawyer named Robert Bork (yes, that Robert Bork, later rejected for a seat on the Supreme Court) DID fire the Special prosecutor while the âActingâ AG, and that began the avalanche of public opinion against Nixon.
We have only had an official Inquiry for two weeks now. Give it time.
They think they can get valuable information from people less yoked to the White House, like former officials and the whistleblowers.
Yesâa thousand times yes. The way forward is documents and cooperative witnesses. Even if you manage to get these Trumpers to testify, it will just be another rehashing of the Lewandowski bull-shit. Get the people in that want to tell their story; the people who know things and want to avoid legal jeopardy; the people who see all the crap that Trump has pulled and are horrified; the third parties that arenât beholden to Trump. Those are the people who need to be invited in.
So two of Rudyâs âclientsâ who were helping him outreach to the UKR govât and Prosecutor Letsenko to make up dirt on Biden and orchestrate the shakedown have been arrested by SDNY on campaign finance charges. They donated money to a pro-Trump super pac.
I find this result a bit shocking as I had thought SDNY had completely bent the knee to AG Barr. The cynic in me thinks Barr might want these two off the street so that he can keep them away from Congress. Wonder if Barr has them deported back to Ukraine? Or, maybe, just maybe thereâs someone in SDNY that actually believes in the rule of law.
If youâre Rudy, you canât be too happy about this.
âSince late 2018, Mr. Fruman and Mr. Parnas have introduced Mr. Giuliani to several current and former senior Ukrainian prosecutors to discuss the Biden case.â
Yes, sir, your typical Florida businessmen!
It feels to me weâre about to hit a turning point, one thatâs difficult to see now but may feel invincible retrospect.
Trump is losing support, albeit gradually, among Republicans as well as right wing media. The Democrats have a strategy theyâre fully executing now, and wonât allow Trumpâs rampant and illegal obstruction stop them. Moreover, the Federal courts are starting to speak and arenât much impressed with Trumpâs legal arguments, as an example, Judge Beryl Howell in the tax case.
Politically, the impeachment numbers are the key. But legally, he doesnât have a statute to hang a shingle on. Hopefully, the courts will rule soon.
And the whole Syria fiasco makes me think perhaps Putin sees the writing on the wall and is cashing in his chips while he still can. Otherwise, it makes no sense for Trump to antagonize Republicans with Impeachment about to pass the House.
We may need to come up with a new category of âFloriduh Manâ.
When they start to look at liability vs. reward, Trumpâs people will start panicking. And thatâs when heâll get a dose of betrayal heâs never permitted before.
More like âUn-Schiffâ More SubpoenasâŚ
That last paragraph could apply to pretty much every GOP maneuver back to Clintonâs impeachment. Well said.
Thereâs something about âunsheathing subpoenasâ that really just feels unsavory.