Disgraced, twice impeached private citizen Donald Trump is being requested to testify during his impeachment trial by Senate Democrats, a prospect that puts the screws to the former president over his role in the failed insurrection at the Capitol last month.
Just days after the attempted coup in which right-wing domestic terrorists stormed the Capitol in a scheme to overthrow democracy and keep Trump in power, the House of Representatives passed an article of impeachment against him for inciting insurrection.
The Senate trial is scheduled to begin next week and is sure to reveal which party believes in holding traitors accountable and which does not.
Of course, Trump has made many false claims in his defense, so Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a House impeachment manager who will present the case for conviction in the Senate, has sent a letter to Trump asking him to provide testimony.
“Two days ago, you filed an Answer in which you denied many factual allegations set forth in the article of impeachment,” Raskin wrote. “You have thus attempted to put critical facts at issue notwithstanding the clear and overwhelming evidence of your constitutional offense. In light of your disputing these factual allegations, I write to invite you to provide testimony under oath, either before or during the Senate impeachment trial, concerning your conduct on January 6, 2021. We would propose that you provide your testimony (of course including cross-examination) as early as Monday, February 8, 2021, and not later than Thursday, February 11, 2021. We would be pleased to arrange such testimony at a mutually convenient time and place.”
Raskin pointed out that former presidents have testified while in office, and that Trump has no excuse to not testify now since he is no longer in office. He then warned that declining to testify would be used as evidence of guilt.
“If you decline this invitation, we reserve any and all rights, including the right to establish at trial that your refusal to testify supports a strong adverse inference regarding your actions (and inaction) on January 6, 2021,” the letter concluded.
How Trump will respond we won’t know until Friday, but Trump is really caught between a rock and a hard place. Testifying under oath certainly puts him at risk of committing perjury seeing as how Trump’s an established serial liar. Refusing to testify would make him look guilty. And if he were to actually tell the truth, he would have to blow up his election lies and reveal he duped his own supporters.
If he agrees to testify, we can definitely expect the trial to be more of a circus than Republicans have already tried to turn it into considering they have literally falsely argued that impeachment of a former president is unconstitutional.
Well, it’s not only constitutional, it’s absolutely necessary to hold Trump accountable and bar him from ever running for office again, whether he agrees to testify or not.
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