The Hidden Dangers of Impeachment | Plus: Lt. Col. Vindman Accused of Having ‘Duplicitous Motive’ | Star Witness May Have Leaked Secret Information
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Hidden Dangers of Impeachment
By Hal Lindsey
America’s founders knew there had to be a constitutional method for removing a president from office. But they were leery of it. They expressed concern that it might become a political weapon. They knew that if politics were to override matters of justice, an impeachment-happy Congress could radically weaken the American republic.
A few days after pronouncing that the House of Representatives was beginning an impeachment inquiry, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said something important. She said that with such an inquiry, “We must be somber, we must be prayerful, and we must pursue the facts.”
I agree that impeachment hearings should be entered into somberly and prayerfully. But prayer and a somber pursuit of facts should start well before the decision to begin the official inquiry. Once it starts, damage to the nation is already being done. Impeachment should never be a political tool. It’s much bigger than that. An impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate would override the constitutional selection of a President.
And here’s the scary part. So far, the present inquiry has been a completely partisan exercise. To my knowledge, not one Republican in the House or Senate has called for impeachment.
Did President Trump attempt to “bribe” President Zelensky of Ukraine in their phone call last summer? As a matter of policy, calls between US Presidents and other heads of state are not recorded. But the best available transcript of it was declassified by President Trump and made available to Congress and the public on September 9th. Anyone who wants to read it, can read it.
The first to testify in the hearings was Ambassador William Taylor. He did not hear the phone call. He has never met President Trump. He briefly met Rudy Giuliani once twelve years ago. His testimony was filled with opinion - lots of “I think” statements. And he told about things he heard from other people. At one point, he said, “I’m not here to take one side or the other, or to advocate any particular outcomes. Let me just restate that. Second thing is that, my understanding is only coming from people that I talk to.”
In court, they call that “hearsay.” This is a House hearing and not a court, but basic rules of evidence are still important. If hearsay evidence can be admitted, then almost anyone can testify because we’ve all “heard things.” But fairness demands “best evidence.” That means someone who was there, not someone who heard things from other people.
And if opinion can be admitted, then once again we are all qualified to testify because everyone has an opinion.
Then they had the former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. She had been appointed by President Obama and was upset that President Trump wanted someone else in the position. She seems to have forgotten that when President Obama came into office, he fired all the US ambassadors around the world who had been appointed by President Bush.
This is important because Presidents conduct foreign policy. The decision about who officially represents the country is a matter of foreign policy. You don’t impeach a President for conducting foreign policy, even if you don’t agree with it.
During the hearing, President Trump was criticized for using what are called “backchannels” in foreign policy. Should a President be impeached for using a civilian rather than a State Department employee to reach out to a foreign government? Presidents have been doing it for decades, if not centuries. It was through a backchannel connection to the Soviet Union that John Kennedy was able to diffuse the Cuban Missile Crisis and avoid World War III.
State Department employees almost always resent the use of backchannels because they see it as infringing on their turf. But it is an invaluable component in a president’s foreign policy toolkit. It should have nothing to do with impeachment.
Using impeachment as a political tool is not just dangerous to this President, but to all the Presidents that will follow - whether Democrat, Republican, or something else. It’s part of the ongoing schism in American life - a schism that threatens the very fabric of the Republic. And, as I have explained elsewhere, it is a fulfillment of end-times prophecy when people groups live in rage against one another, especially when they are acting against their own self-interest.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: I hope you can join me every Sunday evening at 11PM EST on Daystar, or online anytime at www.hallindsey.com or www.hischannel.com for my line by line examination of Revelation. If you missed any episodes in this study, you can catch up by visiting www.hallindsey.com/videos/.
Senator: Schiff star witness may have leaked secret information
Lt. Col. Vindman accused of having ‘duplicitous motive’
One of the star witnesses for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s impeachment investigation, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, may have illegally leaked government secrets and could hold a “duplicitous motive,” charges a U.S. senator.
Vindman, who is testifying in a public hearing Tuesday, was the subject of a letter to GOP members of Schiff’s committee from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.
Democrats claim President Trump, using the threat of withholding aid, pressured Ukraine to investigate. In fact, the aid was given to Ukraine and there was no investigation.
The Gateway Pundit noted that unlike the Democrats’ witnesses, Johnson traveled to Ukraine with special envoy Kurt Volker, spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in person and spoke to President Trump about the hold on military aid.
Johnson stated there was no link between the hold on U.S. military aid to Ukraine and the investigation of the Bidens, but he suggested Vindman was behind the leaks “outside his chain of command.”
Vindman has testified to the House that he was concerned that Trump made an improper request that appeared to be related to the 2020 election rather than U.S. policy.
Johnson noted that in his closed-door testimony, Vindman denied he knew the identity of the whistleblower, who has been reported to be NSC official Eric Ciaramella. However, the Gateway Pundit reported suspicions are growing on Capitol Hill that Vindman was also the source of leak of the suspension of U.S. aid story published by Politico in August.
Regarding Vindman’s closed-door testimony, Johnson wrote: “American foreign policy is what the president determines it to be, not what the ‘consensus’ o[f] unelected foreign policy bureaucrats wants it to be. If any bureaucrats disagree with the president, they should use their powers of persuasion within their legal chain of command to get the president to agree with their viewpoint.”
Johnson argued that an official who ultimately is unable to carry out the policy of the president should resign.
“They should not seek to undermine the policy by leaking to people outside their chain of command,” he wrote.
Fox News reported Johnson’s letter “cast doubt on one of the inquiry’s key witnesses.”
The letter called Vindman one of “a significant number of bureaucrats and staff members within the executive branch have never accepted President Trump as legitimate and resent his unorthodox style and his intrusion onto their turf.”
“They react by leaking to the press and participating in the ongoing effort to sabotage his policies and, if possible, remove him from office,” Johnson said, Fox News reported. “It is entirely possible that Vindman fits this profile.”
Johnson was responding to a request from Republican Reps. Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes to hear the Wisconsin senator’s account of the meetings about aid to Ukraine.
Vindman and Jennifer Williams, a special adviser on European and Russian affairs in Vice President Mike Pence’s office who also is testifying Tuesday, claimed to have been concerned when Trump spoke with Ukraine’s president.
An anonymous whistleblower who heard about the call second-hand filed a complaint, sparking the Democrats’ impeachment investigation.
Johnson has said Trump told him the U.S. aid to Ukraine had been delayed to deal with corruption in Ukraine.
Johnson said that the only thing the complaint about the president’s telephone call has accomplished is to “fuel the House’s impeachment desire (which I believe was the real motivation), and damage our democracy.”
WND
‘WE DON’T BELIEVE YOU’: Jim Jordan CALLS OUT Schiff For Knowing Who’s The Whistleblower
Fox News
#politics #hallindesy #prepare #endtimes #impeach
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