(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
In a letter Sunday night, White House Counsel and Kirkland & Ellis embarrassment, Pat A. Cipollone, informed the House Judiciary Committee that the president would not be participating in its public explainer about impeachment. President Donald Trump has repeatedly complained that the impeachment process has not given him a chance to make his own defense. Predictably, upon being offered that chance, Trump declined.
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“We cannot fairly be expected to participate in a hearing while the witnesses are yet to be named and while it remains unclear whether the Judiciary Committee will afford the president a fair process through additional hearings,” Pat A. Cipollone, the White House counsel, wrote in a letter to Mr. Nadler, arguing that “an invitation to an academic discussion” would not “provide the president with any semblance of a fair process.”
“Under the current circumstances,” he continued, “we do not intend to participate in your Wednesday hearing.”
If you want further proof that impeachment is nothing like a real trial, consider this: Refusing to show up to your trial usually results in a directed verdict against you. Unless Trump plans to blow up the Sept, his refusal to appear in his own defense would be used against him.
Luckily for Trump, the impeachment process isn’t a trial. On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee is planning on… educating the American public on impeachment? It’s like a national teach-in or something. There are more than enough feckless Congressional Republicans available to carry Trump’s water during such a “hearing.” Refusing to send his lawyers will cost Trump nothing. And while refusing to participate hurts Trump’s arguments that the process is “unfair,” that argument has never been based in any fact-based reality anyway. Trump is a hypocrite at a definitional level, I imagine all current and future hypocrisy is already baked into system.
It’s just stupid is all. Trump refusing to send lawyers, then complaining about how he’s not allowed to participate, is stupid. It’s a stupid argument made for stupid people that only works because half the country is stupid.
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Trump’s Lawyers Won’t Participate in Impeachment Hearing on Wednesday [New York Times]
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.