Bolton Video Guts Democrat Witness Strategy

Posted on January 30, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | January 30, 2020

Well, well.

One thing about DC is that everyone has said everything at one time or another for every reason.

So it is with former temporary Democrat savior and darling John Bolton. The Democrats wanted him on the witness stand in the senate impeachment trial of President Trump because, in an illegally leaked book passage to gin up book preorders, Bolton claimed that the president directly told him that Ukrainian military aid was completely tied to a political hit on Joe Biden by the Ukrainians.

Turns out, it was all a gimmick to sell books.

We know this because the president and the busy bees on his opposition research staff have unearthed a video in which former Trump National Security Advisor Bolton makes no mention of any quid pro quo in the Ukrainian matter. None.

They also found clips of Schiff personally trashing Bolton.

Given the Democrats obsessed on Bolton and his supposed damning indictment of the president during the entire Wednesday session of the trial they have some explaining to do when the Thursday session rolls around. No doubt Jay Sekulow and Alan Dershowitz can’t wait to hear it.

The first video is an August 2019 clip from Radio Free Europe. In the interview Bolton says the presidential relationship with Ukrainian president Zelensky was “warm and cordial.” He says not a word about misconduct on the part of President Trump. He even makes the GOP president’s case by saying fighting corruption in Ukraine was a “high priority” for Trump.

But now, with Bolton needing cash for a post White House career, he changes his tune. Well golly, what a surprise.

Seeing the clip the President Trump tweeted: “Game over.”

And what of the honesty and credibility of prospective Democrat star witness Bolton? Let Adam Schiff explain it to us, “This is someone who’s likely to exaggerate the dangerous impulses of the president toward belligerence, his proclivity to act without thinking, and his love of conspiracy theories,” Schiff said to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on March 22, 2018.

And in 2005…
“And particularly given the history, where we’ve had the politicizing of intelligence over WMD [weapons of mass destruction], why we would pick someone who the very same issue has been raised repeatedly, and that is John Bolton’s politicization of the intelligence he got on Cuba and other issues, why we would want someone with that lack of credibility, I can’t understand,” Schiff said, emphasis mine.

The GOP legal team will most probably be ready with those clips at the trial on Thursday. Fun will ensue.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Clashes Continue in Trial on Wednesday, GOP Holds Advantage

Posted on January 30, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | January 30, 2020

The mood was legal yet the elements of fiery controversy were there on Wednesday during the Democrat Combover Festival and Senate impeachment trial of President Trump.

Most GOP questions were handled by attorney Patrick Philbin. But Alan Dershowitz, Pat Cipollone, Pam Bondi and Jay Sekulow also got their turn at bat. The Democrats inexplicably continued to go with the hard on the ear team of Nadler and Schiff, relegating better litigators like Jeffries and Crow to the general sidelines for most of the day.

The Democrats also continued to let the unintentionally comic Val Demings take the podium. She is so inarticulate that her time on camera has become the designated bathroom break time for Democrat and GOP Hill staffers alike.

Other developments were as follows:

The questions from the senators were mostly contrived set ups to their own party’s lawyers. When they addressed the other side the questions became increasingly aggressive as the day wore on.
Supposed swing vote GOP Senator Susan Collins of Maine was seen to be visibly upset at Democrat insults to her and other senators. The Democrats are pushing her towards acquittal.
GOP Senator Rand Paul had a question thrown back at him by Chief Justice John Roberts when Paul named Eric Ciaramella as the informer. More details on that in a following article.
The Democrats focused on Bolton. Yet the GOP, and you will be sure to hear of this today, unearthed videos where Bolton states there was nothing amiss with the president’s communications with the Ukrainians.
A constant GOP theme during the day was that policy or political differences are not sufficient to meet the standard of impeachment set forth by the Founders.The Democrats countered with their usual “big lie” strategy of ignoring reality and focusing on their fictional talking points. Schiff even revisited his old trick of making up lines he then insinuates were the president’s real meanings.
The Democrats stoked the fire on their love affair with the hapless Lt. Colonel “Flounder” Vindman, even though his was perhaps the worst and most discredited testimony during the House hearings.
Jay Sekulow showcased the poison pill defense, as we predicted. He said he would call both Bidens, Schiff, and Ciaramella to the stand, at the very least, if the Senate voted for witnesses.

The New York-California Axis was on display during the Democrat presentations, as the leftist party can’t seem to find very many legal acolytes or elected supporters much distant from the Big Rotten Apple or the Left Coast.
Swing vote possibility Democrat Senator John Tester, given the nature of a question he sent to the Chief Justice for the Democrat House managers, may be leaning against the president.

More to follow…

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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4 moments to watch from Day 3 of Trump’s impeachment defense

Posted on January 28, 2020 by Candice Norwood

President Donald Trump's impeachment defense team on Tuesday concluded their third day of oral arguments by trying to undermine leaked details from an upcoming book by former national security adviser John Bolton.

GOP Trial Defense Team Wraps Up, Scores Big

Posted on January 28, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | January 28, 2020

Tuesday, the last day of the GOP case to the Senate in defense of President Trump, was marked by scholarly analysis and low key appeals to basic integrity by presidential attorneys Pat Cipollone, Patrick Philbin, and Jay Sekulow.

Philbin led off the day, after an intro by Cipollone, expounding on points made Monday by Alan Dershowitz. He specifically warned of the expansive nature and vague context of the “abuse of power” impeachment charge against the president, likening it to a Bill of Attainder.

That kind of bill, legislation targeting a single individual, was prohibited by the Founders in Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution.

The podium was then taken by Jay Sekulow who, eschewing his usual tough manner, moderately emphasized that elections, not impeachments, are the proper way to change presidents in this nation.

He did castigate Democrat manager Jerry Nadler for referring to executive privilege as “other nonsense.” In warning of Nadler’s attitude and impeachment itself, Sekulow oddly channeled the robot from “Lost in Space” as he intoned “danger, danger, danger” more than once.

Will Robinson could not be reached for comment.

Pat Cipollone concluded the active defense case with a subtle, yet hard-hitting, strike against the Democrats by playing videos showcasing their own words from the Clinton impeachment against them.

Nadler, Lofgren, and even Chuck Schumer had to sit there mortified while their on-screen selves from over 20 years ago warned against partisan impeachment and the negative future effects of it on the nation and the presidency.

Schumer even predicted then that Democrats would want “payback” in the future and would unfairly target a GOP president.

Upon seeing that, Cipollone simply responded, “You were right.”

Pat Cipollone closed with a sincere appeal to the Senate, “It is time for this to end here and now.” His manner and tone were agreeable, even gentle, as he asked the 100 members of the U.S. Senate to look to the better angels of their natures and defend the Constitution by rejecting these articles of impeachment. His pitch seemed to be convincing and effective, as opposed to the bombast of the Democrat legal team.

The Senate reconvenes Wednesday at 1pm to begin two days of senatorial questions to opposing legal teams. Chief Justice Roberts asked that responses be brief.

Whether the legal teams will act as such remains to be seen.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Trump Defense Goes for Broke on Monday

Posted on January 27, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | January 27, 2020

Saturday saw the Trump defense team embarrass the Democrat House managers. With a carefully devised message and personality calibration they laid out their case in a concise yet powerful manner.

But Jay Sekulow, the Trump attack dog, said Saturday was but a mere preview. That sets a serious expectation level. What’s the movie going to look like? Here are some possible PR and legal scenarios.

The kitchen sink- The Democrats want it? They get it. After bringing up Hunter Biden and his dad repeatedly on Friday the Democrats have left the door open for the GOP team to walk right through it. Is it a trap? Will they pull a Battle of Cowpens? Unlikely.

It very well could be an invitation from the hard left of the Democrat party to do their dirty work for them and implicate Biden just before the Iowa caucuses.

Just as there are those who say the Pelosi delay was an effort to help Biden by keeping Sanders and Warren out of Iowa close to the election. Either way, Team Trump has said they’re going for it and the possible consequences are devastating for the Democrat legal team.

It will not be too hard to prove that this impeachment effort is but a distraction operation to set aside notice from a myriad number of Democrat scandals, the Bidens among them.

There is no there, there- Pat Cipollone’s team has already shown us this in an entertaining trailer. The main feature looks quite popcorn worthy. The basic premise is, where’s the crime? A phone call? A missed meeting? As Mike Purpura said, “There can’t be a quid pro quo without a quo.”

They could expose the big lie behind the entire Democrat case, that this is a political operation and not a legal argument. It is an attempt to refight the 2016 election by way of impeachment and Senate trial.

It will likely have the same outcome as that election: Donald Trump is the president.

Where is the victim? – If the Ukrainians say they felt no pressure and they didn’t even know about the defense aid delay during the time in question, just who exactly was victimized?

These and other gambits will be featured on Monday by Team Trump. It promises to be a good day for the president’s defense.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos Makes Throat-Slitting Gesture On Camera To Cut Away From Trump Lawyer

Posted on January 24, 2020 by Guest Author

During an ABC News broadcast on Friday, anchor George Stephanopoulos made a throat-slitting hand movement to cut away from Trump attorney Jay Sekulow during the news outlet’s live coverage of the President’s impeachment trial.

George Stephanopoulos Shows How He Really Feels About Team Trump

Tim Graham, executive editor of NewsBusters, noted that Stephanopoulos could be seen on camera making the gesture at about 3:00 P.M. EST Friday.

The clip showed a Capitol Hill reporter asking Sekulow questions about Attorney General William Barr, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and lawyer Alan Dershowitz all making the argument that abuse of power is impeachable.

“We’ve got something very different from what you’re hearing up here,” Sekulow replied.

Shortly after 3 pm Eastern this afternoon, @AoSHQ noted Stephanopoulos was shown on camera making the slit-the-throat "kill" gesture to cut away from Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow taking press questions. These guys are NOT going to like hearing the Trump side of this trial. pic.twitter.com/5QazRGHosV

— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) January 24, 2020

“We’ve got lawyers that will be put forward when our side of the case goes that represents multiple schools of thought on what is an impeachable offense,” Sekulow continued. “They have one thing in common: that the actions alleged and the actions of the president do not reach that level — no matter which school of thought you’re on.”

“We’re not afraid to put out both of those schools of thought because our position is you still have to meet basic, fundamental constitutional obligations and they haven’t,” he added.

BUSTED!

As Sekulow began to take another question, viewers could see Stephanopoulos on camera making a throat-slitting gesture to order the end of the broadcast’s feed. Stephanopoulos then immediately went to a panel segment to discuss the Sekulow’s remarks.

“Dude, we SEE you!” Tim Graham wrote on Twitter.

Dude, we SEE you! George Stephanopoulos gets caught trying to cut Jay Sekulow taking press questions OFF (watch) https://t.co/RAiTNB77AS via @twitchyteam

— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) January 24, 2020

“These guys are NOT going to like hearing the Trump side of this trial,” Graham said in his previous tweet.

That might be an understatement!

The mainstream media has been anti-Trump throughout his presidency. The sentiment comes through as subtle bias or explicit hatred for this President.

George Stephanopoulos appeared Friday to show us exactly what he and his news outlet thinks of Team Trump. We already know what they think.

But to see it expressed so explicitly is still a sight to behold. Wow.

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Trump Attorney: Not Simply Going on Defense, We’re Going to Attack the Democrats

Posted on January 24, 2020 by Rusty Weiss

Attorney to the President, Jay Sekulow, explained that the legal team isn’t content to offer a rebuttal to Democrats impeachment arguments, they plan on attacking them.

Sekulow made the comments during an appearance on ‘Fox and Friends First,’ where he accused the resistance party of selectively editing witness testimony to fit their argument that the President should be impeached and removed from office.

“Adam Schiff, who is the House management leader, has had a problem with the truth since he’s been holding these hearings in the House of Representatives, all the way back to the Mueller report,” Sekulow told viewers. “So, we will not, in a sense, it’s not a rebuttal.”

Instead, he added, “what we are going to do is attack.”

On the Offensive

Sekulow went on to suggest the President’s legal team would be more proactive than defensive when it came to swatting back the impeachment sham.

We will “attack all the misstatements, all of the half-played clips that didn’t play the entire clip, the entire statement, which ends up changing the entire meaning of what they tried to imply,” he said.

“I mean, how many times in those videos did you hear, did you see someone’s mouth keep going and the clip stop?”

Heck, we even saw it well before the impeachment trial got underway, as Democrats and their kindred spirits in the media doctored a phone transcript to turn a mundane phone conversation into something more nefarious.

How media edited the Trump-Ukraine transcript. pic.twitter.com/DxEpHP8BKd

— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) September 25, 2019

Attack!

It shouldn’t be all that difficult for Trump’s team to dismantle the many lies coming out of Schiff, or Jerry Nadler, or any of the other Democrat impeachment team’s mouths.

Former South Carolina congressman Trey Gowdy chastised Schiff for presenting unto the American people a “wildly stupid trial strategy.”

Sekulow and his team will find their biggest challenge in getting the facts out to the American people.

President Trump took to social media to complain that his team is forced to present their case on a Saturday when it’s nearly guaranteed to audience will be much smaller.

After having been treated unbelievably unfairly in the House, and then having to endure hour after hour of lies, fraud & deception by Shifty Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer & their crew, looks like my lawyers will be forced to start on Saturday, which is called Death Valley in T.V.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2020

Aside from that, there will be the usual media bias in which the legal team for the President is shut down if they make a good point.

Exhibit A:

Shortly after 3 pm Eastern this afternoon, @AoSHQ noted Stephanopoulos was shown on camera making the slit-the-throat “kill” gesture to cut away from Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow taking press questions. These guys are NOT going to like hearing the Trump side of this trial. pic.twitter.com/5QazRGHosV

— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) January 24, 2020

Still, Sekulow believes they’ll get the message out.

“We’re going to make sure the American people and all one hundred U.S. senators get to see exactly what those Democrat witnesses – that’s all they were: 17 Democrat witnesses – what they had to say, in full,” he insisted.

“Because, what they had to say – in full – is on our side.”

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Trump Trial Winners and Losers: We’ll Help You Decide

Posted on January 22, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | January 22, 2020

In a couple of hours, we’re again diving into what may become another late-night session in the Senate trial of President Donald Trump.

But before that news eclipses last night’s events, let’s look at an overview of Monday’s hijinks and see how they played out legally and politically.

Presidential lawyers Pat Cipollone and Jay Sekulow knocked it out of the park yesterday in their defense of the president. Cipollone especially shined as he had just the right mix of scholarly demeanor and lawyerly aggression.

He knocked down Dem arguments like swatting away slow-learning gnats and his consistent success at the podium drove Dems to fits of agitation. That agita made Jerry Nadler lose it at the end, as we covered in a previous piece.

Adam Schiff fared no better, as his personal mannerisms got truly odd as the trial wore on.

He seemed not to know what to do with his hands at the rostrum, first holding them together, then kneading them against one another in scenes that made him look like Lady MacBeth in a bad suit.

The Dems used a PowerPoint demonstration that would have embarrassed a third grader as they trudged from point to redundant point not ever moving enough Republicans by their exertions to win the vote on a single amendment.

In fact, during the entire night, they got one Republican one time, Susan Collins of Maine, to break ranks. It didn’t matter and the GOP won that vote too.

It seems the Dems are not playing to the Senate, as they almost admitted a couple of times. They are playing to the media, to give them their talking points, and to the fall election. The agitprop bullets you see on the screen at the trial you will see again in Dem messaging in the fall election.

Speaking of that benighted political group, three of their coterie, Senators Warren, Sanders, and Klobuchar, must be seething in their seats as the trial promises to bleed into long days, longer nights, and has the potential to go weeks.

That will keep the trio off the campaign trail in Iowa and New Hampshire and is a serious boon to Joe Biden and the rest of the Dem field.

Whether Chuck Schumer has intentionally designed it that way is an interesting idea to contemplate.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

The post Trump Trial Winners and Losers: We’ll Help You Decide appeared first on The Political Insider.

Chief Justice Roberts Forced to Play Referee During Impeachment Trials

Posted on January 22, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | January 22, 2020

Tuesday’s first day of the Senate trial of President Donald Trump was a relatively boring affair, up until almost the end.

The GOP shield wall held up on vote after vote, losing only one member, Collins of Maine, one time on a small procedural matter. At the end of the night, the score was Trump 11, the Dems 0.

Fans of the president cheered and chortled on social media as 11 out of 11, save the one noted above, pathetic Schumer amendments were shot down in flames on 53-47 party line votes.

After a night of that kind of battering the Dems started to lose their equilibrium. You could see it in Schiff. He began to oddly glare at the GOP lawyers as if he could conjure up a death stare that would make them cease and desist legally beating him like a rug.

They didn’t seem to even notice him.

At almost the end, not long before 1am, the Dems could stand it no longer.

The frustration that they were convincing no Republican in the Senate to break party ranks enough to give them even one victory overwhelmed the already delicate sensibilities of Dem House Manager Jerry Nadler. He let loose.

He called GOP legal actions “treacherous.” Nadler claimed the Senate was engaged in a “cover-up” and that “only guilty people try to hide evidence.” He went on to say that “the Senate is on trial” and asked if they would “betray your pledge to be an impartial juror.”

The president’s personal lawyer struck back hard.

“We’ve made our arguments to you. And you don’t deserve, and we don’t deserve, what just happened. Mr. Nadler came up here and made false allegations against our team. He made false allegations against all of you; he accused you of a cover-up. He’s been making false allegations against the president. The only one who should be embarrassed, Mr. Nadler is you, for the way you’ve addressed the United States Senate. This is the United States Senate. You’re not in charge here. … It’s about time we bring this power trip in for a landing,” said Cipollone.

It got so heated that Chief Justice John Roberts, presiding over the trial, had to warn both sides on their language. He scolded, “Those addressing the Senate should remember where they are.”

The night ended soon after with complete GOP victory and Dem loss. Day two starts in mere hours.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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