Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, finally delivered the House’s two articles of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump to the Senate this week after her controversial decision to hold off from doing so for about the past thirty days. It appears that this decision was, again, evidence of Mrs. Pelosi’s wisdom in guiding this impeachment process, at least from the Democrats’ perspective. The reason is that it seems almost daily that evidence has been coming out publicly showing that President Trump and/or his allies, if not cabinet members, have committed acts of wrongdoing regarding the Ukraine allegations that are the basis of the two articles: (1) abuse of power and (2) obstruction of Congress.
One such important evidence brought forward this week has been the report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that states unequivocally that President Trump’s 2.5 month withholding of the $391 million in aid to Ukraine, which had been decided by Congress, was illegal and therefore a breaking of law in accordance with the Constitution. This sacred document on which our republic stands states that Congress shall exercise sole responsibility in deciding where government monies are allocated.
Perhaps the most important such evidence this week has been the House release of documents involving Les Parnas and then his two, one-hour televised interviews by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and CNN’s Andersen Cooper. I watched most of both interviews. I thought Mr. Parnas, who is under indictment involving the Ukraine affair, was quite believable in these two televised testimonies. Both Maddow and Cooper did not hold anything back in their questioning of Parnas.
Lev Parnas was born in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union. He is an American citizen and a businessman. He was Rudy Giuliani’s main associate who tried to get political dirt on Joe Biden and his son due to their involvement in Ukraine. Mr. Guiliani has been President Trump’s personal lawyer, whom it appears Trump directed regarding this Ukraine affair.
I noticed that multiple times during the two televised interviews of Parnas that he mentioned God, signifying his belief in God. And once he mentioned his praying about these matters. Parnas says he is cooperating fully with authorities in their questioning of him. He has admitted to them that he did try to get President Zelensky of Ukraine to announce an investigation of the Bidens, threatening that it depended on Ukraine receiving the $391 million. He says he did all of this under direction of both Giuliani and Trump. Parnas may have to do time in prison no matter how he responds to authorities. Parnas says he has decided to tell truth about all of this as he knows it.
President Trump said repeatedly this week, upon being questioned by the media, that he does not know Lev Parnas. Mr. Parnas says boldly that that is a “lie.” Parnas or his attorney has been making public this week various photographs of Parnas solely with Donald Trump and solely with Rudy Giuliani or perhaps one other person in the photographs. Most of them show the persons smiling, as if they are having a good time, which further suggests they really do know each other.
The Senate trial of the impeachment of President Donald J. Trump really begins this coming Tuesday. That is when arguments will be set forth for the first time in the Senate about impeachment. The disagreement between Democrats and Republicans, which latter have the majority of 53 members of the total 100, is about whether or not to call witnesses. If that happens, Parnas could be one of them. But it is also possible that Mrs. Pelosi could decide to re-open the impeachment investigation in the House and call other witnesses, such as Parnas.
Regardless, the next two weeks or more are going to be some of the most historic in our nation’s history regarding its politics. In the entire history of the U.S., its president has only been impeached in the House on three different occasions, and the Senate has never voted to remove the president from office. That is what this impeachment is about now in the Senate–whether or 67 senators or more will vote to remove President Trump from office. It is highly doubtful that they will, especially due to Republicans having the majority there, unlike in the House. Yet who knows if matters could develop to change that scenario. Either way, this is a big deal that is about to happen.
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