Don't expect Fox legal analyst Andrew Napolitano to be joining the #Resistance anytime soon but he nevertheless dropped into his commentary some good advice for Speaker Nancy Pelosi about the Trump impeachment.
In case you missed it worrying that Donald Trump is provoking World War III, just hours before his reckless assassination of Iran’s Gen. Qasem Soleimani the night of our January 2, it just so happens there was bombshell evidence that Trump had personally held up Congressionally-appropriated military aid to Ukraine in defiance of Pentagon concerns that it was illegal to do so.
From a January 2 article in Just Security:
The documents reveal growing concern from Pentagon officials that the hold would violate the Impoundment Control Act, which requires the executive branch to spend money as appropriated by Congress, and that the necessary steps to avoid this result weren’t being taken. Those steps would include notifying Congress that the funding was being held or shifted elsewhere, a step that was never taken. The emails also show that no rationale was ever given for why the hold was put in place or why it was eventually lifted.
What is clear is that it all came down to the president and what he wanted; no one else appears to have supported his position. Although the pretext for the hold was that some sort of policy review was taking place, the emails make no mention of that actually happening. Instead, officials were anxiously waiting for the president to be convinced that the hold was a bad idea. And while the situation continued throughout the summer, senior defense officials were searching for legal guidance, worried they would be blamed should the hold be lifted too late to actually spend all of the money, which would violate the law.
Not surprisingly, there was no mention of any “wag the dog” strategy in a discussion about impeachment from “straight news” anchor (and obvious Trumper) Bill Hemmer or even from Napolitano.
But Napolitano did offer this unsolicited advice to Democrats:
NAPOLITANO: If I were a Democrat in the House, I would be moving to re-open the impeachment on the basis of newly acquired evidence which are these new emails of people getting instructions directly from the president to hold up on the sending of the funds. That would justify holding on to the articles of impeachment because there’s new evidence, perhaps new articles.
But don’t think Napolitano has joined the resistance. He went on to say that if he were a Senate Republican, “I would go about my business as if there had been no articles of impeachment because until those articles of impeachment come over to the Senate, there is nothing for the Senate to do.” He also repeatedly expressed sympathy for Sen. Lindsay Graham’s “frustration” over impeachment.
Hemmer began concern trolling. He quoted from a Karen Tumulty column in the Washington Post called, “Democrats are the ones who stand to suffer by delaying the Senate impeachment trial.” Hemmer said, “She’s making the case that it’s a danger to the Democratic party the longer [Speaker Nancy Pelosi] resists.”
“Politically, I think she’s right,” Napolitano said. “Legally, there are no rules because this has never happened and there is no precedent.” He predicted that “the public will lose interest and will begin to mock the rapidity with which the Democrats conducted the impeachment hearings, saying it’s imperative, we have to do it right away. Well, if it’s so imperative, why has it suddenly stopped?”
Napolitano didn’t say anything further about reopening the articles of impeachment based on the new evidence or whether that might change the politics of delay.
Watch it below, from the January 6, 2020 America’s Newsroom.
(H/T reader Eric Jefferson)
One way to expose that partisanship is playing a role in ones thinking is to use the golden rule. He should put himself in the place of a prosecutor who must contend with a jury that has sold their souls to the accused.
If he was to do unto others the way he would have done unto him, he would not be defending arguments that attack the democrat’s strategy for impeachment process.