Action #1: Our president just bragged on international TV that he withheld everything!
Although Sen. Mitch McConnell pretends his sham of a trial is equivalent to the Clinton trial, that administration actually turned over more than 90,000 pages of documents for congressional inspection, and witnesses testified both during the Starr investigation and at the trial. The Trump administration only revealed call transcripts after the the whistleblower’s report forced them to. Trump then ignored subpoenas and forbade individuals to respond to them and now he’s openly admitted to withholding evidence at the World Economic Forum. Only a senator deeply complicit with the authoritarian regime Trump is forming would refuse to call this “obstruction of congress”.
Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Senator [___] to remind [his/her] GOP colleagues that we, the vast majority of Americans, want a fair trial with testimony from all the relevant witnesses. We want them to be impartial jurors who are paying attention, not wandering around like cats. This is the bare minimum we expect from those to whom we pay with our taxes, from those who say they are our public servants, from those who’ve taken an oath to uphold “impartial justice” at this trial, and from those who’ve sworn to “support and defend the Constitution,” including from enemies without and authoritarian threats from within.
Action #2: Call your legislators and Roberts – have GOP senator-jurors removed for cause!
If you were on trial, would it be OK if some of the jurors said that they’d already made up their minds, if they snuck out during your lawyer’s statement to give interviews, or inexplicably disappeared, or die crossword puzzles, read books, milled about, tweeted about the patriotism of a Purple Heart veteran, and played with fidgets like bored high schoolers? The profound lack of respect to the American people displayed by the GOP proves that “we the people” are no longer their master. In fact, Law & Crime noted that one third of all GOP senators missed crucial issues laid out by Rep. Adam Schiff, such as this.
Conservative pundit Bill Kristol likened the behavior of these senators to endorsing a mockery of a trial.
As for the obvious perjury of McConnell, Graham and others, “Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig…pointed out, any senator could have objected to another senator taking the oath at the swearing in. That would have required Chief Justice Roberts to rule on the challenge. Since no objections were raised, he wasn’t required to take judicial notice of senators’ prior statements. He just presumed their good faith and took them at their word.” Sen. McConnell’s egregious perjury caused Public Citizen to file a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee, requesting an investigation into whether McConnell should recuse himself.
But there’s more that can be done. As in jury trials, any senator, or any of the House managers, can challenge a senator-juror and make a motion to remove him or her for cause, even after the oath is taken. Manipulating a trial to create a predetermined verdict and refusing to hear material witnesses and evidence goes beyond partisan bias, it violates a senator’s oath. Refusing to listen to evidence violates that oath. Our senators can challenge these feckless senator-jurors and see if Chief Justice Roberts is sitting in there for a reason.
Minimal script to your senator: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Senator [___] to move to remove any fellow senator-juror who, by weight of publicly accessible evidence, has perjured themselves or who have deliberately abrogated their responsibility to listen to all evidence.
Minimal script to Chief Justice John Roberts: We want you to do at least as much as a playground monitor would do. Make sure everyone is in their seats and behaving in a fashion appropriate for the trial of an American president. Agree with any motions that fairly call out senators who have perjured themselves with their oath or have deliberately abrogated their responsibility to listen to all evidence.
Contact:
Senator Feinstein: email, DC (202) 224-3841, LA (310) 914-7300, SF (415) 393-0707, SD (619) 231-9712, Fresno (559) 485-7430
and Senator Harris: email, DC (202) 224-3553, LA (213) 894-5000, SAC (916) 448-2787, Fresno (559) 497-5109, SF (415) 355-9041, SD (619) 239-3884
Who is my representative/senator?: https://whoismyrepresentative.com
Chief Justice John Roberts: Supreme Court Clerk: 202-479-3011 or email
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 