Judge slaps down Dem gambit in Trump impeachment probe

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Fox News

A D.C. federal judge on Wednesday shot down an attempt by House Judiciary Committee Democrats to link their subpoena for former White House counsel Don McGahn to a separate request for secret grand jury information from the Russia investigation after the Justice Department accused them of trying to "game the system."

Normally cases are assigned to judges randomly, which the DOJ said is meant to keep parties from “attempting to game the system” by “shopping” for a judge they like. But in a Tuesday court filing, the department alleged the Democrat-controlled committee was trying to do exactly that by exploiting an exception that allows “related” cases to be heard by the same judge. In this case, the DOJ said the panel improperly sought to connect the McGahn case to the grand jury case simply because they're both part of their investigation of President Trump.

"[A]t first blush, the House Judiciary Committee's view that the related case rule applies is understandable," D.C. District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell wrote in her order rejecting the bid. "Nonetheless, closer examination demonstrates that these connections between the two cases are too superficial and attenuated for the instant McGahn Subpoena Case to qualify[.]"

Howell, who is currently assigned to the grand jury case, agreed with the DOJ's argument that the committee’s request to unseal secret grand jury information from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe has to do with the application of the law under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, while the McGahn case is a civil matter dealing with enforcing a subpoena where immunity has been asserted.

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Abusing the Impeachment Process

On three separate occasions, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, has introduced a resolution to impeach President Donald Trump. Each time, the House of Representatives has voted it down.

And with good reason. Consider Green’s latest resolution. No matter how much one opposes Trump, it would have been a serious misuse of the House’s impeachment power. The 95 members who voted for it either do not understand or do not care about the purpose and proper use of this procedure.

Green’s resolution said that the president should be impeached because he is “unfit to represent” American values of “decency and morality” and “respectability and civility.” It also cited Trump’s criticism of four Democratic House members.

There is no doubt that Green deplores Trump and disagrees with his policies on many important issues. The question, however, is whether such matters are properly the basis for seeking to nullify the last election by removing the president from office. They are not, as we explain in a new research paper on the history of impeachment.