I had the Bogus Defense Bingo card ready for tomorrow, when the news about Bolton broke, which raises the question: Will this change the defense strategy? Trump told Bolton in August he wanted to hold the security assistance until Ukraine officials helped with investigations in to the Bidens. There you go, Senate Republicans: another first …
After two hours, the card looked like this: Some people heard #9, which I easily could have missed because I listened as I was doing other things, and I took a few quick breaks. Rumor was that the defense spoke for only two hours because they were irritated that their day fell on a Saturday, …
If the Trump Defense Trial Brief is any indication, we will be hearing lot of bogus defenses and crazy conspiracy theories. I wanted a way to get through it without wanting to poke my eyeballs with a fork. So I came up with an idea: Bogus Defense Bingo here. I can think of only one …
We start with House Manager Jerrold Nadler. Nadler killed it today with this summing up: “A president who abuses his power in order to kneecap a political opponent and spread Russian propaganda conspiracy theories, or even worse, compel a foreign nation to interfere in our election, is a president who attacks the very foundation of …
It was reported this morning that McConnell was trying to rally his fellow Republican senators to exclude witnesses and documents: If so, it seems to me that McConnell is making a political calculation, essentially asking which would be more devastating for the Republicans: more facts coming out through witness testimony, or blocking the witnesses. McConnell …
What happened today, in a nutshell: McConnell’s resolution set out this process: House Managers have 24 hours to present their case Trump’s defense has 24 hours to rebut Senators have 16 hours to ask questions. Then the Senators vote on whether to call witnesses and subpoena documents Initially, the resolution required the 24 hour presentations …
Trump’s legal team filed its trial brief today. It’s a better written, expanded version of the answer they filed Saturday. Check out these two comments from the brief: “Trump acted properly” when he rejected all subpoenas and requests for information. (p. 37) “No witness with direct knowledge testified that Trump conditioned a presidential meeting on …
A few days ago, Senator Marsha Blackburn Tweeted one of the Republican talking points: As an excuse not to call witnesses, Blackburn says that the “Senate’s job” is to review what the House sends to them from the impeachment inquiry. The problem: That’s not how the Constitution defines the Senate’s job. It’s also not how …
This is the first official statement of Trump’s defense team. You can read it here. It’s the same exact nonsense the House Republicans spouted all through the inquiry. Almost like they all used the same talking points. It’s pure Trump: A rapid, continuous (and exhausting) stream of absurdity and lies. One lie can be managed. …
Note: During the next few weeks, I may do more than one blog post per day. Later today, for example, we will have the House trial brief and the Defense answer to the Articles. I’ll likely do Over the Cliff Notes (name given by a clever Twitter follower) for both. Let’s talk about the difference …
