A piece in Lawfare goes back to find that Donald Trump thru his lawyers probably lied to Congress in response to their impeachment (indictment) trial….
Anyone surprised?
I doubt there will be anything with this ….
But it just confirm’s how the 45th American President handles the truth…..
Time constrains and probably some politics worked for Trump beating ‘the rap’…..
In the wake of Cassidy Hutchinson’s extraordinary testimony before the House Jan. 6 select committee, a number of commentators have been considering how her account will and should affect judgments about the merits of any potential criminal prosecution of the former president. A preliminary question for prosecutors concerns the strength of the evidence of the president’s criminal intent as it affects the application of the relevant statutes, such as obstruction of a congressional proceeding or seditious conspiracy. Hutchinson’s testimony in a number of respects bears on this issue of mens rea.
But Hutchinson’s testimony carries other importance as well, both for prosecutors and institutionally for Congress—particularly for the Senate. Specifically, the light that the Jan. 6 hearings, and Hutchinson’s testimony in particular, have shed on Donald Trump’s response to the 2021 impeachment process warrants attention.
These hearings show that Trump, through his lawyers, lied to the Congress about the events of Jan. 6 in his second impeachment trial in denying that the then-president had meant to spark violence. In so doing, he undermined the constitutional process of impeachment—as well as the peaceful transition of power.
In determining whether to bring charges, prosecutors have to assess not merely the quality of the evidence against Trump but also the national interest in a prosecution of the former president. Trump’s lies in the impeachment process should properly figure into prosecutors’ deliberations on this point. After all, this was the constitutional proceeding by which he was supposed to be held accountable, and a conviction would have included a Senate judgment of his ineligibility to ever again seek office again. Corrupting the trial compounded the underlying conduct which prompted the impeachment by helping sap the adjudication of its value—thus making prosecution arguably a more important mechanism for holding the president accountable.
What’s more, the hearings should prompt long overdue consideration of the processes by which Congress exercises its power to impeach and try presidents. Since 1974, it has been reluctant to conduct independent fact-finding. In the process affecting Bill Clinton, the House conducted virtually no independent factual inquiry, relying fatally on the independent counsel record compiled by Kenneth Starr. The Senate then did the minimum in the trial, conducting only three depositions. While the House conducted a substantial investigation in the first Trump impeachment trial, the Senate relied solely on House evidence and, though significant questions remained unanswered, passed on conducting any factual inquiry of its own.
In the second impeachment, concerning the events of Jan. 6, neither house did much investigation. The House faced time pressures in acting on a schedule that would allow for the Senate to vote on removal from office, but once Trump’s tenure ended on the constitutionally prescribed day and time, the Senate had more time in which to call witnesses. Yet it nonetheless declined to do so.
In this last case, the result was that people like Hutchinson were never called to testify, putting an enormous amount of weight on the select committee’s investigation more than a year later. A significant percentage of the revelations that have emerged through the committee’s investigation would have surfaced in a reasonable trial. In other words, that Trump’s lies to the Senate were not exposed in real time is largely a function of the Senate having chosen not to develop any independent factual record….