The Constitutional grounds of the Democrats’ second impeachment trial against Donald Trump are shaky at best. Nowhere in the law of the land does it say Congress can impeach and convict a president no longer in office. Numerous legal experts have come out and said they do not have the authority to do it.
But when have Democrats ever followed the Constitution—when power was at stake?
Many people agree that Democrats are doing this out of pettiness and hate. They may have “won” the 2020 Election, but there’s nothing stopping Trump from running again in 2024. That might be their greatest fear, as they ignore all common sense to impeach Trump over unprovable allegations.
On top of that, they have demanded several times that Trump testify at this bogus trial (a trial 45 Republican senators agree is unconstitutional). Trump has refused to appear, for obvious reasons. Now, Democrats are dropping all kinds of threats.
Democrats reiterated Monday a threat to punish former President Donald Trump for not testifying at the impeachment trial in the Senate, which begins Tuesday…
“[T]he House has invited President Trump to voluntarily testify under oath, yet President Trump immediately rejected that opportunity to tell his story. The House will establish at trial that this decision to avoid testifying supports a strong adverse inference regarding President Trump’s actions (and inaction) on January 6.”
…The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that “No person … shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” [Source: Breitbart]
I suppose Democrats think Trump and his lawyers forgot about the 5th Amendment? That an American cannot be compelled to testify against themselves in a trial? It seems the last thing Democrats are following these days is the Constitution, so we shouldn’t be surprised.
Not only are they disregarding this important right, but twice they used the same threatening language to coerce Trump to testify. Earlier, Democrat Jamie Raskin said if Trump did not testify it would provide a “strong adverse inference.”
What the heck does that mean? How does someone not talking prove anything? Democrats are so desperate, they think they can twist the law around to fit what definitions they want.
They have no evidence to prove Trump “incite” anything. Nothing he said on January 6 or at any other time compelled people to violence (unlike Democrats). They never bothered to conduct an investigation prior to the House’s vote. Perhaps their only hope was to get Donald Trump on the stand, hoping he’d say something incriminating (thus violating the 5th Amendment).
Or, perhaps, they know people don’t really care about this impeachment trial. But if a famous, former president were to take the stand, millions of people would want to see it. This just might be a pathetic attempt by Democrats to make this circus relevant—as Americans have long lost respect for Congress.
In either case, Democrats are grasping at straws.