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alan dershowitz
Sen. Joni Ernst Admits GOP Using Impeachment Trial to Damage Biden in 2020
"Trump is trying to use the trial to do what Ukraine wouldn't—destroy his political rivals."
Jan 27, 2020
After President Donald Trump's legal team on Monday completed the second day of their impeachment defense--which largely consisted of attacks on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter--Republican Sen. Joni Ernst told reporters that she is "really interested to see" how team Trump's performance at the Senate trial "informs and influences the Iowa caucus voters, those Democratic caucus-goers."
Ernst's remarks, which came just a week before the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses, were widely viewed as an open admission that Trump's attorneys and the Republican Party are using the Senate impeachment trial as an opportunity to damage Biden at the polls.
"This is saying the quiet part out loud," tweeted MSNBC correspondent Garrett Haake, a sentiment that was echoed by others.
"Here is Joni Ernst screaming the quiet part into a bullhorn," said Kaili Joy Gray, executive editor of The American Independent, in response to the Iowa Republican's comments.
\u201cERNST: "IA caucuses are this next Monday evening. And I'm really interested to see how this discussion today informs and influences the Iowa caucus voters, those Demcaucus goers. Will they be supporting VP Biden at this point?"\n\nH/T @JaxAlemany\u201d— Alan He (@Alan He) 1580170088
Ernst's comments run counter to the longstanding White House and Republican narrative that Trump's effort to pressure Ukraine to launch investigations--for which he was impeached by the House of Representatives last month--was a genuine attempt to root out corruption, not a politically motivated ploy to harm Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Like Ernst, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) also invoked the presidential election following hours of arguments by Trump's defense team, which includes Pam Bondi, Eric Herschmann, Alan Dershowitz, and Ken Starr.
"I was watching Elizabeth [Warren] and Bernie [Sanders] and Michael [Bennet] and Amy [Klobuchar] and they were really eyes wide open during that part of it," Barrasso told reporters, referring to Trump attorney Pam Bondi's presentation, which heavily focused on Biden an his son.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said as he watched "Bondi and the other Trump lawyers spend most of the day savaging the Bidens (as expected)... it become crystal clear to me: Trump is trying to use the trial to do what Ukraine wouldn't--destroy his political rivals."
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Trump Team Titans
"Birds of a feather will gather together."
Jan 25, 2020
Birds of a feather will gather together.
-- Robert Burton, The Author's Abstract
A man is known by the company he keeps. The make-up of Team Trump is known, and as this is written, the trial is under way and by the time it sees the light of day, may already be over. Nonetheless, is not too late to admire one of the almost members of the Trump defense team, two of the well-known members and draw attention to one member who has been sadly overlooked. It is not that she has not had as illustrious a career as her colleagues. It is just that it is slightly less newsworthy.
The almost member of the defense team is, of course, Rudy Giuliani. He has gone around the world at great personal sacrifice in order to advance the Trump interests by getting dirt on the Bidens, and getting rid of Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. Ambassador to the Ukraine.
In all those efforts he has been single minded, always bearing the interests of the Trump foremost in his mind. Nonetheless, on a personal level, Rudy wanted nothing more than to have his name and face forever implanted on the impeachment proceedings by being a highly visible part of the defense team. Although he had, in the past, made history by being the only New York mayor to announce at a press conference, that he was divorcing his wife, an announcement that was as much news to her as to the rest of the world, that feat would not have held a candle, when his obituary is written, to having been a part of the team that was defending a man who was not only the most corrupt but also the dumbest president to have ever lived in the White House. Rudy really wanted to ride into posterity on the back of the Trump. It was not to be.
Among others, the defense team includes Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr. Alan is an excellent choice since he was one of the lawyers who enabled the billionaire pedophile and good friend, Jeffrey Epstein, to avoid prison time for his now famous sexual escapades. Epstein had faced multiple counts of soliciting and trafficking underage girls in Florida, but thanks to the able defense of Alan and others, he was sentenced to 13 months of house arrest. Alan was assisted in that highly successful effort by another member of the Trump team, Ken Starr. Following his participation in the Epstein case, Ken went on to still more illustrious achievements. In 2011 he was named president of Baylor University and in 2016 he was kicked out for failing to respond appropriately to reports that football players at Baptist Baylor University had been convicted of sexual assaults.
Being among such successful defenders and enablers of men accused of sexual criminal activities, it is no surprise that she would go unnoticed. It's not fair. She is just as exemplary as they--I refer to Pam Bondi.
Pam was the former attorney general for the state of Florida. When she was running for reelection to that post in 2013, she accepted a $25,000 check for her campaign from the Donald J. Trump Charitable Foundation. (On December 19, 2019 a suit against the foundation for using its money for, among other things, political purposes to further the Trump's presidential pursuit, was settled.)
Following receipt of the gift from the foundation, Pam made the carefully considered decision not to sue Trump University on behalf of Florida citizens who claimed the university had swindled them.
Among her many notable Trump-like activities, Pam was active in taking steps to make it more difficult for voting rights to be restored to Florida ex-felons, repeatedly appealed federal court rulings against same-sex marriage bans until the U.S. Supreme Court definitively invalidated such prohibitions, and joined a lawsuit opposing the clean-up of the Chesapeake Bay, a bay that is several hundred miles from Tallahassee.
Another notable act occurred when she was running for reelection as attorney general for the state of Florida. Marshall Lee Gore had been sentenced to death in Florida following his conviction for a vicious murder and rape. His execution was twice postponed but finally scheduled for September 10, 2014. It turned out that was the date that Pam, who was running for re-election, had scheduled her "hometown campaign kickoff" at her South Tampa home. Understandably, she did not want an execution to take away from the excitement of her day. Accordingly, she asked the governor's office to postpone the execution. Her request was granted. Mr. Scott was put to death October 1, 2014. Ms. Bondi's fundraiser went off without a hitch. She was reelected to a second term as attorney general of Florida the following month.
Pam is a great addition to the Trump defense team. She will have no trouble fitting in. Trump, if no one else, should be grateful for her participation.
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'Are You F*cking Kidding Me:?' Monica Lewinsky Reacts to Ken Starr Joining Trump's Impeachment Defense Team
"That's the message Trump wants to send for his impeachment?" asked another critic after president announced legal team for Senate trial.
Jan 16, 2020
Monica Lewinksy was among those expressing shock Friday morning after it was announced that Ken Starr and Robert Ray--both of whom served as special prosecutors in the investigation that led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in the 1990s--were appointed by President Donald Trump to be part of his legal defense team during the U.S. Senate's impeachment trial.
\u201cthis is definitely an \u201care you fucking kidding me?\u201d kinda day.\u201d— Monica Lewinsky (she/her) (@Monica Lewinsky (she/her)) 1579274789
As Politico reports, Starr and Ray, along with Harvard Law School's Alan Dershowitz and former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, will "serve as clean-up hitters behind White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Jay Sekulow" for Trump's six-person team of lawyers.
Trump's legal "dream team" left other critics also unimpressed:
\u201cPretty sure the last time Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr were on the same legal team was when they were working to keep Jeffery Epstein out of prison in Florida\u201d— Rob Cohen (@Rob Cohen) 1579275632
"Of all the lawyers in the country, Trump chose Ken Starr--who was fired from Baylor University over a rape scandal--and Alan Dershowitz--who helped pedophile rapist Jeffrey Epstein stay out of prison," tweeted Keith Boykin, a political commentator for CNN. "That's the message Trump wants to send for his impeachment?"
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