Dahlia Lithwick: Three Branches of Government Conspired to Rig Donald Trump's Impeachment Trial

[babylonsister]

Last edited Sat Feb 1, 2020, 11:50 AM - Edit history (1)

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/john-roberts-donald-trump-impeachment-trial-rigged.html

Three Branches of Government Conspired to Rig Donald Trump’s Impeachment Trial

By Dahlia Lithwick
Jan 31, 2020
4:30 PM

snip//

For those of us who clung to the norms and the forms of neutral legal process over the past three years, it’s sobering to see something that was dressed up as a trial, with rules and robes and speeches, wither and die on the vine, all for a lack of moral courage from an array of individual actors who will just claim someday that they were merely playing their constitutionally designated parts. Nobody expected more from any one of them, but that doesn’t make the damage any less severe. It might have taken just a small act of courage from the chief justice, or Murkowski, or Alexander, or Bolton, to give the country an actual trial. But courage in the face of the juggernaut of bothsidesism is trickier than it looks, because it will be characterized as bias. Three branches of government worked together to obscure, delay, and confound a fair trial. Nothing about this process was neutral.

A friend of mine who is as devoted to the proposition that the courts, the lawyers, and the judges will save America from itself warned me very early on in the Trump era to read all the transcripts from the third Nuremburg trial, commonly known as the Justice Case. That was the trial for judges, jurists, and prosecutors who—under cover of law—allowed for atrocities during the Third Reich. I don’t read and reread the transcripts and testimony obsessively because we find ourselves in anything close to the Third Reich, or because judges in 21st century America are accused of doing anything close to what the Nuremburg jurists were accused and largely convicted of. I read and reread the transcripts and conclusions merely to remind myself that just because judges, robes, statutes, and case law are involved in a process does not mean that justice is being done. I also do it to remind myself that sometimes people who live in thrall to the idea that whatever courts and process ultimately produce is an objective thing called “justice” are sometimes too credulous by half—and oftentimes even complicit.

This Senate trial was not a failure of process, but a failure of courage. Historians will laugh at a truth-seeking that elided and avoided truth. But it won’t fault Auden’s “neutral air” or “blind skyscrapers”; it will fault the architects of a trial that never even tried.

[pdxflyboy]

1. Babylonsister.......

Thank you for this post.

[Wednesdays]

2. Source?

[babylonsister]

5. Oops! Sorry, here:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/john-roberts-donald-trump-impeachment-trial-rigged.html

[malaise]

3. They must be shamed and destroyed

It was and is a sham

[Baitball Blogger]

4. I can't believe this one flaw in our Constitution:

Our forefathers expected high ethics from our Congressional leaders. They never foresaw a party putting themselves first before country.

Why didn't they see this? Why didn't they forsee that a party could cheat their way into an election, and pack the other branches of government with their own kind?

And how do we fix it?

[babylonsister]

6. I expected high ethics, or at least

the gop having enough courage to not ignore the Constitution.

I don't see how it's fixable short of voting all of the turncoats out.

[in2herbs]

8. You wrote "I don't see how it's fixable short of voting all of the turncoats out." I would like to

add not only for this coming election but for the decades of elections in our future. Voters/public have a short attention span and I can see forgiveness of the Rs by the voters and the public and them voting for Rs after the Ds have been in office for a while and righted the course that our country should be on.

[usaf-vet]

19. So after 2020, you think we are going to have elections. More than likely we will have a coronation

..... of the heir to the tRump dynasty. Will we see our first female head of state Queen Ivanka?

Don't laugh the fix was in.

Pre-election 2016: "Trump can not win"
2016 until November 2019: "That's it he has finally gone too far"
November December 2019: Impeachment him.
January 31, 2020: "We know he did it and he's guilty but WE DON'T care"

[EndlessWire]

24. I keep thinking about Melania's coat...n/t

[eppur_se_muova]

7. The Founding Fathers didn't even believe in parties, and didn't adequately prepare for them.

The rise of parties in any political system is pretty inevitable, but it's hard to anticipate the shenanigans of an institution you don't actually believe in. They hoped that parties would never rise to a level of such influence that they totally dominated politics. It was a vain hope, as we now know.

[LaMouffette]

10. Starve the beast!

Money is the root of all evil, that is for damn sure. I don't think anything will change until we are able to overturn Citizen's United and can make all super pacs illegal. I found a good article on the website U.S. Pirge that begins:

A new Washington Post- ABC News poll shows that almost 7 out of 10 voters believe that super PACs, the independent expenditure only committees created in the wake of the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United decision, should be illegal. Super PACs are not responsible for all problems with American democracy, however, they do amplify those troubles so it is no surprise that the public is crying out in opposition to them. Unfortunately, due to the Court’s backwards interpretation of the first amendment, we cannot legislate away super PACs today. However, there are some very important steps that every level of government – from your city council to the White House - should take right now to mitigate the impact of super PACs before the 2012 election.

There are three main problems with super PACs: unlimited money, corporate money, and secret money.

[To read more:]

[link:https://uspirg.org/blogs/blog/usp/making-super-pacs-illegal|

[crickets]

17. Excellent point. Thanks for the link and

welcome to DU, LaMouffette!

[DallasNE]

20. We Have 5 Justices

That are members of the same Catholic extremist sect that rule based on non-secular views. The Bible has become the governing document. The Establishment Clause has disappeared. Weed out the outright corruption as the first fix. That could require more impeachment but that doesn't work because of corruption.

[2naSalit]

9. K&R

[Pepsidog]

11. Just think about the disproportionate power Senators from sparsely populated states have over the

majority of Americans. As the divide between Rs and Ds becomes more extreme the structural defects of the Constitution will become more and more evident. The minority of the population will continue to force their religious and moral beliefs upon the majority which looks nothing like the country the Founding Fathers envisioned. It may take another depression or economic disaster that creates tremendous hardships to convince hordes of Trump loving supporters to realize that Republicans have nothing to offer. Not until they are penniless, unemployed and dying without healthcare will they realize that it was us “Libtards” who offered anyone other than rich corporations and billionaires any chance at a good life. They will get their rapture in the form of a corrupt American political, social, and economic system whose once great institutions were destroyed by the likes of Trump, McConnell, Roberts etc. we are at the beginning of the end of so-called American Exceptionalism.

[Mersky]

12. K&R!

[cp]

13. "Failure of courage"

51 cowardly senators* and one cowardly chief justice of the Court Formerly Known as Supreme.
* a senate formerly know as the world's greatest deliberative body

[pangaia]

14. PLEASE--- REPUBLICANS in three branches of government......etc etc etc....

When will people get this shit straight ?.. and say it????

Naming names, yes, BRAVA !!

But 3/4 of Americans probably have no idea who those people even are..

[patphil]

15. Maybe someday someone will write a book called "Profiles in Cowardice".

The people who did this to our country will be dead by then, but the damage they have done to the Republic will live long after they are gone.

[JudyM]

16. Cowardice is far too kind a moniker.

[Under The Radar]

18. Why do we continue to ignore history?

This past week has been a painful reminder; This life has never been about what is right and what is wrong, it has never been about the Democrats and Republicans. It really is a struggle between the “Haves and Have Nots” Just as in the trial of Christ, the death of socrates, legal system justice for the poor, and hundreds of other examples throughout our existence, the status quo are not held to the same rules that apply to the rest of us.
Be a good boy and don’t upset the apple cart and all will be just fine.

[usaf-vet]

21. This is the EXACTLY the way the above movie "The Shooter" ends.

For those who haven't seen the movie here is the plotline.

A top Marine sniper, Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg), leaves the military after a mission goes horribly awry and disappears without a trace. Swagger is coaxed back into service after high-profile government officials convince him to help thwart a plot against the President of the United States. Swagger realizes he has been betrayed and becomes the target of a nationwide manhunt. Instead of hiding, he seeks revenge against some of the most powerful and corrupt leaders in the free world.

[Under The Radar]

22. Wonder what ole Bobby Lee is up to these days?

[usaf-vet]

26. Back on his mountain top.Hope there is room it's going to get crowded after Friday.

[Wounded Bear]

23. 3 branches didn't do it....ONE POLITICAL PARTY DID IT....

Sheesh, get it right! The Republican Fucking Party gamed and rigged the system and exploited the rules to protect the Tangerine Terrorist in the White House.

Saw this bullshit on FB.

[kentuck]

25. They felt threatened. They were afraid.

" I read and reread the transcripts and conclusions merely to remind myself that just because judges, robes, statutes, and case law are involved in a process does not mean that justice is being done..."