Well, that backfired. On the first day of questions in the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump, one House impeachment manager appeared to boost the Republicans' case.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) presented a question to Chief Justice John Roberts for the impeachment managers regarding the Trump defense team's argument that the alleged conduct described in the articles of impeachment "does not violate a criminal statute." Therefore, they say, it does not meet the standard of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Does that mean a president can never be impeached for conduct that doesn't necessarily amount to a crime. Say, for instance, "indiscriminately investigating political opponents" or "asking a foreign power to investigate members of Congress?," Shaheen's question read.
Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX) stood up to field the question.
"The simple answer is a president can be impeached without a statutory crime being committed," Garcia responded. She added that that was the same conclusion during the impeachment trials of former Presidents Clinton and Nixon.
That prompted the Trump re-election campaign to thank Garcia for the assist, since she was basically piggybacking off of Alan Dershowitz's argument.
House Impeachment Manager Sylvia Garcia just admitted that President @realDonaldTrump has not committed any crimes. pic.twitter.com/GZvtrFSDsK
— Francis Brennan (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@FrancisBrennan) January 29, 2020
Dershowitz, a liberal lawyer and Harvard Law professor and a member of Trump's defense team, argued in the Senate that criminal-like conduct "is required" to remove a president.
“The core of the impeachment parameters allege that crimes have been committed, treason, bribery, and things like that, in other words, other high crimes and misdemeanors,” added Trump counsel Robert Ray.
Trump's team has repeatedly reminded the jurors that the first article, abuse of power, is too vague to be considered. The obstruction of Congress article was easy to respond to too, considering Trump published the most relevant document of all, the transcript of his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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