House Democrats score major court victory in impeachment battle against Donald Trump

| 6:15 pm EDT October 25, 2019
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Even before Donald Trump’s Ukraine scandal surfaced and forced the issue, House Democrats were already taking the necessary steps to acquire evidence and testimony in the impeachment of Donald Trump. One of those legal battles has finally been decided, and it’s a major victory for the House Democrats – on two different levels.

Today a federal judge ruled that the grand jury evidence from the Mueller Report must be turned over to House Democrats within five days. Donald Trump can attempt to file an emergency injunction with the appeals court, but even if it’s granted, the precedent set here suggests that the Democrats will win this battle once the appeals have been exhausted. Even as we wait to see if an appeals court is willing to step in, today’s ruling also hands the Democrats a broader victory.

Team Trump tried to convince the judge not to release the Mueller grand jury evidence by asserting that the House impeachment inquiry was invalid. There’s no legal or constitutional basis for such an assertion, of course. So not only did the judge side with the House Democrats on the Mueller material today, she also ruled that the House impeachment inquiry is indeed legally valid. She went even further by finding that Trump is “willfully” trying to obstruct the impeachment inquiry.

This ruling helps set the legal precedent going forward that the House impeachment inquiry is indeed a constitutional proceeding, and that Trump has no legal basis for trying to suppress evidence or stop anyone from cooperating with the inquiry. As is increasingly the case with the Trump regime, his lawyers used an argument in court that had no legal basis and was instead the kind of foot-stomping nonsense that Trump loves to hear. And, as is going to continue being the case, the judge laughed him out of court for it. Trump’s people aren’t even trying to win; they’re just trying to keep Trump sated as everything falls apart for him.