Trump Impeachment Trial: Sham With His Defense Strategy in the Homestretch

Trump: Like Salem witch trials colonial Massachusetts 

(1692-93)

Impeachment trial and Trump’s defense team background story here from the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON — To lay the groundwork for an expected Senate impeachment trial, the White House sent a full black Suburban to the Capitol earlier this month. 

Inside were members of President Trump’s impeachment team, including aides from legislative affairs and communications offices. Crammed into the back row was a triumvirate of attorneys: White House chief counsel Pat Cipollone and his top deputies, Patrick Philbin and Mike Purpura.

Cipollone brings a collaborative and protective instinct to his work, relying on his assembled team of accomplished lawyers while fending off efforts to add some additional high-profile attorneys to the impeachment defense. 

He has influenced many of the key moments in the strategy so far, at times over the objections of other senior officials or without including key staff (emphasis added):

·       His advice that the president release the transcript of Trump’s July 25 call with the Ukrainian president — which formed the basis of a whistleblower complaint that helped set off the impeachment inquiry — was opposed by other senior members of the administration, according to White House officials.

·       Cipollone’s legal team also sketched out a communications plan without first consulting Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, the officials said. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.

·       Cipollone clashed with Mick Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff, according to White House officials.

·       Cipollone and his team helped Mulvaney prepare for that infamous press briefing this fall about Ukraine and his “quid pro quo faux pas” live TV moment. 

·       Cipollone was furious when Mulvaney connected the president’s decision to hold up aid to Ukraine to his desire for Ukraine to open investigations that could benefit Trump politically, according to White House officials (when Mulvaney said publicly: “We do that all the time, get over it.”

·       Mulvaney later the same day issued a statement contradicting his own remarks.

·       Mulvaney’s team has said that Cipollone should have acted faster and alerted others in the West Wing this summer when he first heard concerns from national security staff about the president’s Ukraine call, administration officials said.

The counsel’s office hasn’t led on all the prominent moves, however.

Case in point:

That nasty inflammatory six-page letter Trump sent to Pelosi on December 17 comparing impeachment to the Salem Witch Trials (over 325 years ago).

That letter in fact was written by Eric Ueland, the White House legislative affairs director, and Trump senior immigration adviser, Stephen “Rightwing Anti-Immigrant Supporter” Miller.

My emphasis added with this article on Miller and a short video from Miller’s own uncle:

Dr. David S. Glosser, MD, Neuropsychologist

(Miller's uncle)

Cipollone’s assistant Philbin and others submitted edits to a draft of that letter but not all were incorporated, according to one official.

Still, the center of gravity for the impeachment response remains the White House counsel’s office, even as the war-room is a one-man operation inside the Oval Office. 

“He’s doing a great job,” Trump said about Cipollone in the Oval Office this month. “Pat has been fantastic.”

Full story at the WSJ link.

My 2 cents: This “trial” now being set up in the GOP-run Senate, namely a one-man show by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), is nearly a foregone conclusion, based on his own words: It will be short, sweet, not guilty assured in advance – end of story (sic).

Memo for Mitch: Not so fast – stay tuned and see.

Thanks for stopping by reading this review.