Dumping Trump: Impeachment watch

October 31: Bribing the jury

The US House of Representatives voted 236 to 196 to proceed with public impeachment hearings. The vote was purely partisan. Republican’s unanimously opposed the plan.

So far hearings have been in the form of witness depositions behind closed doors. Contrary to GOP talking points Republican representatives attended those hearings and cross examined witnesses. 

What is clear is several witnesses have corroborated each other’s testimony, that they overheard Trump suggesting to Ukraine’s president that military aid would be withheld unless they help the Trump regime dig up dirt on his domestic political rivals like Joe Biden. 

The document provided to Congress, described by Trump repeatedly as a “perfect” and “word for word” transcript is in fact a heavily edited summary prepared by his staff to cover up his stupidity. The actual transcript was hidden by zealous staffers on a secret (but not secret enough it seems) hard drive.

The public impeachment trial will be held in the Senate, where Republicans have a majority. It is possible that Trump will survive his term if the partisan vote remains firm. But Republican Senators too are up for re-election in 2020, and already polls say that over 60% of Americans favour impeachment.

So the Republicans face a dilemma–cling stubbornly to an obviously corrupt president and increase the likelihood of a Democratic dominated Senate, or attempt to save themselves by throwing their own party into at least short-term disarray. They have no one to blame but themselves, as no GOP leader has had the nerve to break ranks with Trump and his rabid, far-right base. They wet their bed, let them lie in it.

Many of the Republican Senators are having difficulty at the grass roots raising funds for their re-election runs. One thing Trump excels at is campaigning and fundraising. He’s awash in cash, but that might have backfired on him. He has been caught offering cash to GOP Senators who are in fundraising trouble. This amounts to a bribe dangled in front of the people who will be his impeachment jurors.

According to Richard Painter, who was an attorney in the George Bush White House: “The senators can raise their own campaign cash. Any senator who accepts cash from @realDonaldTrump before the impeachment trial is guilty of accepting a bribe and should go to the slammer.”