Bizarre, Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Politics, Society

PORTEOUS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL — DAY THREE

The third day of the Senate trial for United States District Court Judge Thomas Porteous starts today. The witnesses include a former judge and former prosecutor. We are likely to start our case on Wednesday . . .

Much of this testimony will center on Article III of the impeachment. I have attached our motions to dismiss Article Three and our general summary if you are following the case.

Porteous – Motion to Dismiss Article III

Porteous Pre-Trial Statement
Porteous Pre-Trial Statement – Exhibits

109 thoughts on “PORTEOUS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL — DAY THREE”

  1. Blouise,

    I too was admiring our fearless leader’s team. Excellent presentation and questioning skills.

  2. Vince,

    But would you not concede that changing the rules on the fly does not make for a level playing field?

  3. But can there be 2 sets of rules … one that applies to prosecution and another that applies to the defense?

  4. Woolie asked if “is the chairwoman trying to say to JT, gee, this isn’t a court of law, we are following House rules?”

    I don’t know what the exact exchange may have been.

    This is covered in the Constitution, Article I, section 5:

    “Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings,…”

    So the impeachment trial is in fact following Senate rules, not court procedures, under the Constitution. I would say that the Senate can change those rules.

    I think Sen. Harkin objected during the Clinton impeachment that the Senate was not in fact the same as a jury, and the Chief Justice, presiding under the Constitution, ruled in his favor. I recall that Harkin said he thought he had just won his first Supreme Court case.

    No jury can change the rules in a courtroom, but the Senate sets the rules of impeachment.

  6. Contact McCaskill directly via e-mail form –

    http://mccaskill.senate.gov/?p=contact

    The Honorable Claire McCaskill
    United States Senate
    717 Hart Senate Office Building
    Washington, D.C. 20510-2504

    Phone: 202-224-6154
    Fax: 202-228-6326

    I would like to note that the honorific is how the address is listed, not my addition. I’d stick with the simpler “Sen.” or “Senator” as my honorific of choice.

  7. frankmascagniiii and whooliebacon,

    Good, I see I wasn’t imagining this bias on the part of the Chairman

    I will be writing my Senator to be leery of this “record” the Chairman is preparing as the “rules” were not applied fairly and thus the record is itself, not complete.

    I think I’ll do that now rather than wait.

  8. whooliebacon,

    You are not missing anything. I’m starting to wonder if she has a marsupial pouch. If it bounces like a kangaroo . . .

  9. While I am squarely for Judge Porteous’ impeachment and think that the government has a good ‘case’, Madam Chair McCaskill appears exceptionally collegial towards—and very biased in favor of—her congressional colleagues who are managing the government’s ‘case’ against Porteous.

  11. Am I missing something, or is the chairwoman trying to say to JT, gee, this isn’t a court of law, we are following House rules and the House team can change the rules anytime they want but if you try to insert a witness without following the House rules, rules I allowed to be broken yesterday by the House team, then that ain’t going to happen mister.

  12. Senator McCaskill reminds this old trial lawyer of Judges I have appeared before that display a prosecutorial bent. She appears not to apply the “rules” evenhandedly (assuming there are rules).
    She does not even conceal her favortisim for the prosecution. 302’s are routinely excluded from a federal trial! She changes her rulings to favor house council and hurt the defense council. The bias of the chairperson is easy to see during the course the “trial”. Lawyers count on application of the rules to both sides; when the chair changes the rules in the middle of trial it is usually the defendant that gets hurt. The irony is that she is ruling on matters related to disqualification when she should be disqualifying herself!

  15. Buddha Is Laughing
    1, September 15, 2010 at 9:58 am
    Hmmm.

    I am not seeing the Hearing on any of C-Span’s schedules for today. I hope this is an oversight on their part tentative scheduling based on McCaskill’s schedule wrangling. I’m stuck at home waiting for service people today and while I could catch up on “Rubicon” from the DVR, I’d much rather follow this.

    ============================================================

    Geeze Buddha, all those good Senators are praying at their Weds. prayer breakfast and two of the really good Senators are intimately involved in the program so of course we must wait till 8:30am to begin. Being filled with prayer these same Senators can’t be expected to begin sharply at 8:30 … ha, ha … aren’t we just too cute for words.

  17. Buddha Is Laughing,

    …. I’m stuck at home waiting for service people today and….

    That’s not one of the charges that Judge Pompous is facing is it?….

  18. Hmmm.

    I am not seeing the Hearing on any of C-Span’s schedules for today. I hope this is an oversight on their part tentative scheduling based on McCaskill’s schedule wrangling. I’m stuck at home waiting for service people today and while I could catch up on “Rubicon” from the DVR, I’d much rather follow this.

  20. Good morning all,before I start my “honey do” day,a few things to consider unrelated to the hearing.

    1.Tea party ally wins nod for N.Y. gov
    Political novice Carl Paladino beats the Republican designee in the race for the party’s nomination for New York governor.

    2. + – WASHINGTON — It’s tea time in America.

    Putting an exclamation point on a surprising — and unpredictable — primary season, tea party-backed candidate Christine O’Donnell beat moderate and longtime front-runner Rep. Mike Castle in Delaware’s GOP Senate primary Tuesday.

Comments are closed.