Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said on Thursday that he plans to get Donald Trump’s impeachment “dismissed,” the latest in a line of GOP stunts aimed at protecting Trump from facing a trial in the Senate on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Hawley claimed that since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is holding back the House-passed articles of impeachment until Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agrees to a fair trial of Trump, that impeachment should be dismissed.
“Dems said impeachment was URGENT. Now they don’t want to have a trial, because they have no evidence. In real world, if prosecution doesn’t proceed with case, it gets dismissed. So on Monday, I will introduce measure to dismiss this bogus impeachment for lack of prosecution,” Hawley tweeted Thursday afternoon.AdvertisementLoading…
“This will expose Dems’ circus for what it is: a fake impeachment, abuse of the Constitution, based on no evidence,” Hawley continued. “If Dems won’t proceed with trial, bogus articles should be dismissed and @realDonaldTrump fully cleared.”
Hawley’s tweets are riddled with errors.
First, there is ample evidence that Trump put a hold on military aid to Ukraine in order to force Ukrainian leaders to announce investigations into his political rivals — a move Democrats say is an abuse of power.
On Thursday, Just Security reported that Trump himself ordered the military aid to be placed on hold, and that government officials worried such a move was illegal. The report cited several Trump administration officials’ un-redacted emails, redacted versions of which were previously released to the Center for Public Integrity.
Second, the impeachment was not “fake,” as the House did in fact vote to impeach Trump on two charges — a power the Constitution grants the lower chamber unequivocally.
Hawley, who claims to be “one of the nation’s leading constitutional lawyers,” has sidled up to Trump and the Republican base since taking office in 2019, even raising money off of Trump’s impeachment.
Details about how an impeachment trial will take place should start to come together after Congress returns to Capitol Hill next week following the holiday recess.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
