Professor Jonathan Turley has taken the high legal road and it has cost him. When he defended Trump in front of Congress in 2019, social and academic DC told him he would pay a price. He did it anyway. Now, on this impeachment, he’s also taking a high road devoid of partisan analysis.

… Impeachments go to the status of an officeholder; indictments go to the status of an individual. If prosecutors believe Trump incited insurrection, charge him. The Senate must decide if it wants to hold a trial based on a legal fiction: to remove someone who has already left.

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) January 18, 2021

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FNC: “George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley argued on Monday that there is some value in a post-service impeachment trial in terms of dialogue and addressing the issues raised, but there are also ‘very significant’ countervailing costs. Turley went on to say that holding an impeachment trial after a president leaves office is ‘a very difficult argument to make in my view given the language of the Constitution.’ Turley made the points on ‘The Faulkner Focus’ one day after his Fox News op-ed was published titled: ‘Trump impeachment trial – why his best defense may be no defense.’ ”

“It is the future of the Constitution, not Donald Trump, that most concerns me as the Senate is about to try to remove a president who has already left office. On its face, the planned impeachment trial is at odds with the language of the Constitution, which expressly states that removal of a president is the primary purpose of such a trial,” said Turley.

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As to Trump’s best legal strategy? “If the Senate proceeds to a trial despite a lack of constitutional authority, Trump can sit in Mar-a-Lago and promise to challenge any effort to disqualify him from future office. Indeed, the political miscalculation may be greater than the constitutional miscalculation. A trial with an empty defense table would magnify the view of many that this is an improper or, at a minimum, unnecessary exercise. Moreover, if a court were to later declare the trial unconstitutional, it would be seen as a vindication of Trump, who has long maintained that the Washington establishment has been using any means to keep him from office,” said Turley.

“William Blount was a senator from Tennessee who was alarmed by a plan for Spain to cede what is now Louisiana to France. Blount was a land speculator and he sought to have Great Britain take the land instead. That led to a call for impeachment but Blount was expelled in 1797 from the Senate before he could be tried there. Blount went back to Tennessee and refused to appear before the Senate on the grounds that he was not subject to an impeachment trial after leaving office. He also contested the application of the impeachment provision to a legislative officer. The Senate apparently agreed and dismissed the case.

“If an effort to bar Trump’s candidacy in 2024 were to fail in the courts, it could resuscitate his standing, which is currently at an all-time low. Indeed, Blount again should be a cautionary tale. Blount remained popular back in Tennessee and spent the rest of his life holding an elected state office. (He died two years later during a lethal epidemic – yet another similarity to our present times.)

“As I have previously suggested, the Senate could show institutional restraint despite the legitimate anger over Trump’s Jan. 6 speech before the Capitol riot. Trump’s legacy already includes the inglorious distinction of two impeachments. The Senate would not compound, but undermine, that ignoble legacy with an arguably extraconstitutional act.”

This piece was written by David Kamioner on January 19, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

Read more at LifeZette:
Tucker Carlson Tells Hard Truths About The Assault On The Capitol
Cawthorn Targeted For No Reason
Rival Senate Trial Concepts Roil DC

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