Political bombshell: Senate 'need not wait' on House to hold Trump impeachment trial
'Sorry, but the Constitution does not permit that partisan, result-oriented ploy'
By Joe KovacsPublished December 25, 2019 at 2:14pm
PALM BEACH, Florida -- One of the most respected legal minds in America who voted for Hillary Clinton says the U.S. Senate doesn't have to wait for the House to deliver its articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to hold its trial and resolve the matter once and for all.
"I believe that the Senate need not wait for articles of impeachment to be transmitted," says Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz in a Christmas Eve commentary.
"Senators are empowered by the Constitution to begin a trial now -- with or without further action by the House."
"Just as the House has the 'sole power of impeachment,' so too the Senate has the 'sole power to try all impeachments.'
The Senate can make its own rules (as long as they are consistent with the Constitution) and establish its own timetables."
Dershowitz, who has gone on national TV to say House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is engaged in an "abuse of power" for delaying the process, says:
"The Democratic House majority, led by Speaker Pelosi, want to have their constitutional cake and eat it too: they want Trump impeached but not acquitted.
Sorry, but the Constitution does not permit that partisan, result-oriented ploy.
Either Trump has been impeached and is entitled to a Senate trial; or he has not been impeached and is entitled to a clean slate."
Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz
There has been a national debate taking place on whether Trump has, in actuality, been impeached, since Pelosi has not completed the process and delivered the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
Dershowitz addressed this concern, saying,
"My own view is that in the public eye, President Trump has been impeached by a partisan vote and he is now entitled to be acquitted, even if the Senate vote is as partisan as the House vote.
The partisans who voted his impeachment along party lines in the House, have no principled argument against a party-line acquittal.
The Democrats devised the partisan rules of engagement in the House.
They can't suddenly demand a change in those rules because they are a minority in the Senate.
"So there are only two constitutionally viable alternatives:
either Pelosi must announce that Trump has not been impeached; or the Senate must initiate a trial.
Preserving the status quo indefinitely -- Trump remaining impeached without having a trial
-- is unconstitutional and should not be tolerated by the American people."
Onlookers take photographs of President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump in front of the National Christmas Tree outside the White House in December 2019 (Official White House photo)
President Trump did not make Christmas Eve a silent night on the impeachment quagmire, as he tweeted from his home in Palm Beach, Florida:
"Everything we're seeing from Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer suggests that they're in real doubt about the evidence they've brought forth so far not being good enough, and are very, very urgently seeking a way to find some more evidence.
The only way to make this work is to mount some kind of public pressure to demand witnesses, but [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell has the votes and he can run this trial anyway he wants to."
....mount some kind of public pressure to demand witnesses, but McConnell has the votes and he can run this trial anyway he wants to. @brithume @foxandfriends
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