Donald Trump’s own House impeachment witness turns against him

| 3:00 pm EST December 27, 2019
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Professor Jonathan Turley has been such a blatant shill for Donald Trump and the Republicans, he was willing to give gibberish televised testimony during House impeachment hearings about why Trump shouldn’t have been impeached. Turley destroyed his reputation that day, of course. Now, like everyone who stands too close to Trump, he’s feeling burned – and he’s belatedly pushing back against him.

In the time since Turley committed reputational suicide, Donald Trump has indeed been impeached by the House. The thing is, Trump is now claiming that he somehow hasn’t actually been impeached, as if it somehow doesn’t count because Nancy Pelosi hasn’t sent the articles of impeachment to Mitch McConnell yet.

For reasons known only to him, Jonathan Turley has decided that this is a bridge too far, and that he wants off the crazy train. Turley has penned an op-ed for the Washington Post, spelling out that Trump has absolutely been impeached, and acknowledging that Trump is full of crap for claiming that he hasn’t been impeached. Interestingly, Turley is using the same legal basis that Palmer Report used last week, and that others have also used: House impeachment hearings like a grand jury, the articles of impeachment are an indictment, and the current situation is the equivalent of a sealed indictment.

It’s never entirely clear why various people decide to throw away their reputation, self respect, and in some cases far more, by climbing into bed with Donald Trump. At least Jonathan Turley has already figured out that destroying himself in Trump’s name was a bad idea, and that he’s best off trying to claw his way back to the real world before this whole thing gets any uglier.