The Die Is Cast: Trump's Legal 'Strategy' Against Impeachment Is Pathetic

LAWFARE.COM

When I wrote barely 24 hours ago that Donald Trump "has long nursed a well-developed sense of grievance, and no more so than anger over the (accurate) view of his enemies that he was not legitimately elected," I did not know how correct I was although I understood how desperate he was.  The president and his lawyers don't have a pot to piss in when it comes to claims that House Democrats are violating the constitution in developing articles of impeachment against him, let alone because of the Ukraine scandal, a starkly black-and-white instance of presidential misconduct of the most egregious kind.  But I was shocked when the White House announced that its legal defense is the claim that the impeachment inquiry is an effort to undo the 2016 election. 

Pathetic. 

"Your unprecedented actions have left the president with no choice," wrote White House counsel Pat Cipollone in a scathing letter to House Democratic leadership on Tuesday.  "In order to fulfill his duties to the American people, the Constitution, the executive branch and all future occupants of the office of the presidency, President Trump and his administration cannot participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances."

If you are searching for a hidden meaning -- perhaps some clever tactical advantage -- in this preposterousness, it's not there.  Cipollone's eight-page letter was more of a scream, devoid of legal reasoning and a reflection of the president's obsession with the legitimacy of an election that he won, in part, because of Russian interference.  

Given that the Constitution mandates that Congress, as a coequal branch of government, can investigate a rogue president and impeach and try him for high crimes and misdemeanors, depriving investigators of crucial witnesses and evidence is not a strategy.  It's desperation. 

And in refusing to cooperate with what Trump calls a "kangaroo court," the president risks ensuring the very outcome he has been trying to avoid through his stumbles and bumbles because the Democratic leadership has made clear that his failure to comply with their demands for information could form the basis for its own article of impeachment. 

Meanwhile, an anonymous senior administration official declared during a press call that no other witnesses or documents would be provided, putting a "full halt" to cooperation. 

Among the issues the Cipollone's letter raises is the refusal of Democratic leaders, at least so far, to vote to establish a formal impeachment inquiry as was done during the Nixon and Clinton impeachment proceedings.  Democrats argue that such a vote is not necessary, as the investigating committees already have the full subpoena powers they didn’t have during those previous impeachment inquiries.  Unsaid in the letter is that even if that vote was taken, the White House would continue to refuse, block and stonewall. 

"The White House should be warned that continued efforts to hide the truth of the President's abuse of power from the American people will be regarded as further evidence of obstruction," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi countered in response to the letter.  "Mr. President, you are not above the law.  You will be held accountable."

The letter came shortly after the White House blocked the voluntary appearance of Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union and a key player in Trump's attempt to extort the Ukraine president to investigate Joe Biden and his son, before three House committees.  It also is expected to block an appearance on Friday by former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, whom Trump fired because he believed that she was getting in the way of his extortion scheme.    

Key to and lending a further air of unreality to this pushback is the "deep state" conspiracy theory long nurtured by Trump that some of America's closest allies plotted with his enemies at home in 2016 to try to prevent him from winning the presidency.  Those enemies, by his telling, included the FBI, which worked to prevent his election and then Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who tried to discredit it through his Russia scandal investigation. 

To that end, Attorney General William Barr and John Durham, a top federal prosecutor whom Barr assigned to review the origins of the Russia scandal investigation, visited Rome and the United Kingdom last month in an effort to prove the entire Russia scandal investigation was a setup.  Australia also is being pressed to roll over.    

Trump's anti-impeachment "strategy" is a gift to House Democrats. 

It comes as public sentiment has begun to shift toward impeachment and removing him from office, the first cracks in Republican congressional support for the president, and declarations from former national security officials in the Trump administration, including recently fired national security advisor John Bolton, that the president is endangering national security because of his overt attempts to extort Ukraine to collect dirt on Joe Biden and his son, his utter lack of foreign-policy expertise and running roughshod over institutional restraints. 

The law and history are on the Democrats' side.  Now all they have to do is not blow it. 

This means not overreaching, obtaining crucial whistleblower testimony, playing the long game and responding to the inevitable flame throwing from Trump and his surrogates with poise and dignity. 

JOHN LOCHER / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

I have resisted blogging about Rudy Giuliani because I don't have much of anything to say beyond the obvious: This once crack federal prosecutor is cracked.  But as the guy who almost single handedly is assisting Donald Trump with his ongoing self-impeachment, he has a certain fascination.  Kind of like watching a burning building.  

What finally took me over the top was Giuliani's announcement that while he wouldn't be caught dead testifying before one of the Democratic-led House committees ginning up articles of impeachment, and neither would any other West Wing big, he is going to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Lindsey Graham.  

My initial reaction was, "This must be a joke!"  

What is so stupefying is that while Graham has become Trump's poodle, he occasionally gets uppity, like when he condemned the "commander in chief" earlier this week for abandoning America's Kurdish allies by withdrawing U.S. troops from northern Syria to appease Turkey, which launch an offensive against the Kurds on Wednesday.  Then there is the fact that the minority Democratic members of the committee include presidential wannabes Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, who already have their knives out in anticipation of having Trump's personal lawyer-fixer for lunch.  

But will Giuliani, who is a pathological liar if not exactly of the president's caliber, testify under oath?