Donald Trump is a coward
Just when they thought they were “tired of winning,” Donald Trump has given the drooling claque of knuckle-dragging cretins who still support him something else to weep about. He’s a coward. The child-raping, murdering monster spent the last four years lying to the American people, now he refuses to back his lies when and how it actually matters: under oath.
The letter in reply to Congressman Jamie Raskin’s request that Trump testify at his impeachment trial is a classic in circumlocution. Nowhere in it does it say that Trump’s lawyers, Bruce L. Castor Jr and David I. Schoen, categorically decline to have their client testify — because they know they can’t. Trump can be legally compelled to testify.
Instead Castor and Schoen refer to the request to have Trump testify as a “publicity stunt.” Donald Trump’s candidacy and presidency was one long, tiresome publicity stunt, so it is a typical Republican exercise in hypocrisy. Besides, here’s a chance for Trump to prove his alleged innocence under oath, and he lacks the guts to do it because he knows he can’t say a word without perjuring himself. I say it again, Donald Trump is a coward, and the only publicity stunt is their refusal to acknowledge the obvious.
The letter is signed in part by Bruce L. Castor, Jr, a man with whom I have some prior personal experience. Six years ago I spent some activism time in a group advocating for the victims of Bill Cosby, and Castor was one of the losers who stood in our way. It was unclear why, though I suspected corruption.
Castor was defeated for re-election as DA of Montgomery County, PA, in part because he failed to prosecute Bill Cosby when he had a chance to. Then Castor tried to discredit the principal witness, Andrea Constand, in the trial that eventually saw Bill Cosby off to prison. Ms. Constand successfully sued Castor for defamation in a suit that he settled for an undisclosed amount two years ago. So Castor is a known scumbag.
As I say, nowhere in the disingenuous Castor/Schoen letter sent to Congressman Raskin does it expressly state that Donald Trump won’t testify. But it does imply two absurdities. The first absurdity is that the request to have Trump testify means “what is known to everyone: you cannot prove your allegations against the 45th President of the United States, who is now a private citizen.”
This is absurd on its face. The best way, in fact, to prove the article of impeachment charge of incitement against Trump is to have him testify, and they know it. The hazard of having him do so has been known since the days that it was mooted that Trump might testify before the Mueller investigation. As soon as Trump’s lawyers realized that there was no scenario in which Trump wouldn’t lie, they did everything in their power possible to prevent his testifying.
Castor and Schoen conclude by implying that the impeachment proceeding is unconstitutional when they write, “The use of our Constitution to bring a purported impeachment proceeding is much too serious to play these games.” Supposedly having their game show host client defend himself under oath is a “game.”
The fact of the matter is that the continued impeachment of Donald Trump after he has left office is not unconstitutional, if that’s what they mean. The Constitution is mute on the topic, but there exists a precedent for it. In 1876 Secretary of War William Belknap was impeached after he resigned from office.
The reason the Castor/Schoen letter of reply is so thin on the ground is because they know what the rest of us know, that they have got very little. It still doesn’t stop them from sounding the now tired but familiar Republican note of victimhood, proving yet again that there is no bottom to which this pirate ship party will not stoop. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.