Schiff could move for mistrial in Senate impeachment after Trump legal team’s conflicts of interest
House Impeachment Manager Adam Schiff could decide to ask Chief Justice Roberts to declare a mistrial in the Senate impeachment proceedings before the final vote to decide on the charges against Donald Trump is held on Wednesday, according to NBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner.
Such a move is neither considered in the Senate rules adopted for the trial nor has ever been attempted before at either of the two other impeachment trials in U.S. history.
However, the revelation that White House Counsel Pat Cipollone was in the room when Trump personally ordered John Bolton to push Ukraine into launching investigations into Democrats — as the then-National Security Advisor claims in his upcoming book — implicates a principal member of the president’s defense team as a material witness in the accusations against Trump.
The fact that Cipollone was aware of and withheld incriminating evidence that helped prove the case against the president — as the emails from officials in the Office of Management and Budget that the Department of Justice disclosed only hours after the Senate voted against hearing further evidence in the trial proved — also provides further fodder for a motion to dismiss the trial as irreparably tainted.
The direct involvement of one of the jurors in the proceedings, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), in the Ukraine extortion scheme as alleged by the lawyer for Lev Parnas — one of the primary figures involved in the execution of the Ukraine pressure plot, along with his colleague, Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani — also helps justify any potential Democratic petition to the Chief Justice to declare the trial invalid as currently constituted.
Add your name to tell the Senate: CONVICT DONALD TRUMP!
Kirshner, a former federal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington DC for 30 years, urged Congressman Schiff to file the motion before the Senate votes on a final verdict this Wednesday in an impassioned post on Twitter.
Many have asked if the House managers can move for a mistrial. Here are my quick thoughts: I wish Schiff WOULD make a motion for a mistrial based on, among other things, the revelation of Cipollone’s grossly unethical conduct/conflicts of interest. I wouldn’t be deterred that… https://t.co/F7UVx7lCUM
— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) February 2, 2020
disclosed by John Bolton). Cipollone perpetrated a unimaginable fraud on the Senate and the American people and the Dems should not go quietly into that dark acquittal. Move for a mistrial and see what the Chief Justice says.
— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) February 2, 2020
Kirshner’s advice essentially boils down to an appropriate metaphor on this Super Bowl Sunday: go for the “Hail Mary” pass.
While it remains to be seen if Schiff and the Democratic leadership will follow Kirshner’s suggestion, the obvious coverup that the Republicans in the Senate have orchestrated under the guidance of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and the president’s closely coordinated defense team is so egregious and damaging to our democracy and the rule of law that it would practically be malpractice not to at least try the tactic.
No matter how unlikely it is that the conservative Supreme Court chief would rise to his patriotic duty to protect the Constitution and force a new trial to be conducted that would allow the evidence to be formally presented to the public, America deserves the effort, at the very least.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
