WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday alleged that the impeachment hearing against him is nothing more than a political hit job and a partisan sham after Democrats appointed a partisan politician with an axe to grind against the President after Chief Justice Roberts refused to preside over the impeachment.
The Chief Justice of the United States is not set to preside over the proceedings contemplated by the Senate, as he would be constitutionally required to do if the House was seeking to have the president removed from office under Art. I, Sec 3, Cl. 6 of the United States Constitution.
In January, the Supreme Court said Justice Roberts would not preside over the hearing, as required by the Consitution of the United States. Instead Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy will be the judge presiding over the hearing and according to his past rhetoric against Trump has no ability to be fair or impartial.
“I consider holding the office of the president pro tempore and the responsibilities that come with it to be one of the highest honors and most serious responsibilities of my career,” Leahy said. “When I preside over the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, I will not waiver from my constitutional and sworn obligations to administer the trial with fairness, in accordance with the Constitution and the laws.”
After the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol, Leahy had already convicted Trump.
“We must act together now not just to hold President Trump accountable, but to ensure that no future president, no matter their party, places at risk our democracy in service of their own selfish, illegal, and authoritarian ambitions,” he said. “Trump’s crimes trying to overturn our elections and openly instigating a riot causing deaths warrant his immediate resignation or removal.”
Trump said Leahy is not fit to preside over an impeachment hearing against him because he an extreme political bias against the former President.
“Once the 45th President’s term expired, and the House chose to allow jurisdiction to lapse on the Article of Impeachment, the constitutional mandate for the Chief Justice to preside at all impeachments involving the President evidently disappeared, and he was replaced by a partisan Senator who will purportedly also act as a juror while ruling on certain issues,” Trump’s defense team argued. “The House actions thus were designed to ensure that Chief Justice John Roberts would not preside over the proceedings, which effectively creates the additional appearance of bias with the proceedings now being supervised by a partisan member of the Senate with a long history of public remarks adverse to the 45th President. The 45th President believes and therefore avers that this action of the House of Representatives, additionally, 14 violated his right to due process of law because the House, effectively, maneuvered an ally in the Senate into the judge’s chair.”