{"id":121694,"date":"2021-02-09T02:23:09","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T07:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=121694"},"modified":"2021-02-09T08:45:09","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T13:45:09","slug":"group-led-by-longtime-trump-attorney-argues-impeachment-trial-unconstitutional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/group-led-by-longtime-trump-attorney-argues-impeachment-trial-unconstitutional\/","title":{"rendered":"Group Led by Longtime Trump Attorney Argues Impeachment Trial Unconstitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgroup-led-by-longtime-trump-attorney-argues-impeachment-trial-unconstitutional%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=121694&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A group led by former President Donald Trump\u2019s longtime attorney Jay Sekulow on Monday submitted a legal analysis arguing that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-impeachment\">impeachment<\/a> trial violates the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0American Center for Law and Justice submitted the 45-page legal memorandum (<a href=\"https:\/\/c391070.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com\/pdf\/ACLJ-Memorandum-re-Unconstitutional-Senate-Impeachment-Trial.pdf\">pdf<\/a>) to the Senate a day before the trial is expected to begin, urging the upper chamber to reject the article of impeachment against Trump on the grounds that the trial is unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p>The group argues that a plain text reading of relevant provisions of the Constitution would only allow sitting presidents to be impeached.<\/p>\n<p>They say that this reading of the Constitution is backed up by Chief Justice John Robert\u2019s decision to not preside over the trial. Roberts is required to preside over trials against presidents under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/articlei#section3\">Article I, Section 3<\/a>. The chief justice did not provide the reason for not presiding, but legal scholars surmise that it was likely because Trump is no longer president.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile not dispositive, the fact that, according to the Senate Democratic Leader, the Chief Justice of the United States was invited to preside over this trial\u00a0and yet declined to do so, is quite telling,\u201d the group argues.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Senate Democrats, who hold the majority, have announced that\u00a0Senate President Pro Tempore Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) will preside. The group argues that the move equates to Democrats admitting that \u201cthe subject of the trial is \u2018non-president.\u201d This means they concede to the interpretation that \u201cthe president\u201d under Article I, Section 3, is likely to mean sitting president.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the text, \u2018the President of the United States,\u2019 in the constitutional provision requiring the Chief Justice to preside can refer only to the sitting president, and not to former presidents, then the textual identification of \u2018[t]he President\u2019 contained in Article II, Section 4, which makes the President amenable to impeachment in the first place, also excludes anyone other than the sitting President,\u201d they argue.<\/p>\n<p>The House has argued that although Trump has already left office, his conduct stipulated in the charge against him occurred when he was in office.<\/p>\n<p>But the group contended, \u201cthis argument does not in any way alter the Constitution\u2019s clear textual identification of \u2018the President.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The group also refuted the opposition argument that the framers of the Constitution intended to include impeachments of former officials because it was the practice of the British parliament, which provided inspiration to the Founding Fathers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut the fact that early states did expressly provide for late impeachment and the fact that the national Constitution did not actually supports the very opposite conclusion,\u201d they said. \u201cThe Framers were aware of the practice and, unlike the states that expressly allowed it, they chose not to accept late impeachment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They added that the founders also rejected the model that allows the British Parliament to impeach anyone. They did so by limiting impeachment to public officials.<\/p>\n<p>Subjecting Trump, who has returned to private citizen life, to impeachment would violate this constitutional principle, they argue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Senate only has jurisdiction over the sitting President, and then only to address questions of potential removal and disqualification, remedies which only apply to a current officeholder.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3221159\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/sekulow-600x369-1.jpg\" alt=\"Senate Impeachment Trial Of President Trump Continues\" width=\"600\" height=\"369\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Legal Counsel for President Trump, Jay Sekulow, answers a question from a senator during impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 29, 2020. (Senate Television via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Sekulow, who is the group\u2019s chief counsel, previously served as Trump\u2019s impeachment attorney in the former president\u2019s first impeachment trial.\u00a0He is not representing Trump in the second impeachment trial.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s legal team is intending to argue the Senate has no jurisdiction to try a former official, that the charge against the 45th president is deficient, that their client was deprived of due process and had his right to free speech violated by the article of impeachment, according a memorandum r<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/trump-team-lays-out-impeachment-defense-ahead-of-senate-trial_3689777.html\">eleased by the defense team on Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Democrat-controlled House on Jan. 13 voted 232\u2013197\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/democrats-nine-republicans-impeach-trump-again_3655278.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">to impeach Trump on a single article<\/a>\u00a0of impeachment, alleging that the president incited an \u201cinsurrection\u201d that they claim resulted in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/what-happened-in-dc-on-jan-6-2_3648252.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S. Capitol breach<\/a>\u00a0on Jan. 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group led by former President Donald Trump\u2019s longtime attorney Jay Sekulow on Monday submitted a legal analysis arguing that the impeachment trial violates the U.S. Constitution. The\u00a0American Center for &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1892954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[5925,4930,3670,3636,5922,3634],"class_list":["post-121694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-argues","tag-attorney","tag-group","tag-impeachment","tag-longtime","tag-trump"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1892954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}