Trump presents his own impeachment defense
On the eve of his likely impeachment, President Donald Trump has opted to act as his own defense lawyer.
In a six-page, stream-of-consciousness diatribe sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and released by the White House on Tuesday afternoon, Trump denounced the Democrats’ two articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — as “not recognizable under any standard of Constitutional theory,” engaging with a process the White House had until now spurned in protest.
Crafted more like one of his signature tweetstorms than a legal document, the letter was written “for the purpose of history and to put my thoughts on a permanent and indelible record,” according to the president. Replete with grammatical errors, odd capitalizations and language rarely seen in official White House documents, it castigates Pelosi for “declaring open war on American democracy” and “offending Americans of faith” in what Trump called an “election-nullification scheme.”
A White House official denied that Trump was “frustrated” and venting in the letter. [Continue reading…]
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Monday weighed in on President Donald Trump’s assertion that the impeachment proceedings against him should stop, saying he “is not a lawyer.”
The remarks from the 86-year-old justice came at an event in New York where she was awarded the Berggruen Institute Prize for Philosophy and Culture. She plans to donate the $1 million prize to a number of organizations that promote opportunities for women. [Continue reading…]