Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., has made sensational statements into a signature style over the last couple years. However, this week Swalwell appears to be contesting the touchstone of due process: the presumption of innocence. On Tuesday, Swalwell declared that, President Donald Trump refuses to give Congress the documents and witnesses that it has demanded, he is clearly guilty of all charged offenses. Swalwell declared “We can only conclude that you’re guilty.” Trump has gone to the courts to challenge the demands under presidential immunities and privileges.
Swalwell’s position further extends the troubling premise of the obstruction article of impeachment. The House is moving to impeach Trump for failing to yield on its demands during a relatively short period of investigation. It will be impeaching him despite that fact that the Supreme Court just took a case to consider his challenges to a demand for his tax and finance record.
That however is not enough for Swalwell who believes that members should not only effectively impeach a president for challenging such demands but should also conclude that he is guilty: “In America, innocent men do not hide and conceal evidence. They are forthcoming and they want to cooperate and the president is acting like a very guilty person right now.”
So much for the Fifth Amendment. It is not clear if the same standard applied to President Barack Obama when he went to court rather than turn over material in the “Fast and Furious” investigation.
It will be interesting how this extreme anti-due process view will impact Swalwell’s effort to be named one of the House managers. This view could be played back to the Senate as an example of the unhinged position of some members in this impeachment.
I’m not sure which law school Rep.Swalwell attended. Perhaps he should consider seeking a refund. It has become abundantly clear in recent weeks that many members of Congress are not well versed in the most basic principles of Constitutional Law. Most states require those licensed to practice law to complete educational courses at specified intervals. And while a law degree is not a prerequisite for serving in Congress, it seems to me that all members of Congress should be required to complete a curriculum that would enable them to understand the issues before them. Congress acts recklessly when it does not have a full understanding of the issues. That is a disservice to the taxpayers.
I would extend the demand for a refund to the citizenry. We no longer have the best politicians money can buy. We also deserve a refund.
Dear Professor, as you know there is in the law of evidence the concept of spoliation. Spoliation involves the destruction, alteration or withholding of evidence. I won’t attempt to provide a full dissertation on spoliation but a defendant who engages in such conduct is subject to a presumption that the evidence which he or she alters, destroys or withholds contains or is evidence of that defendant’s guilt or, in a civil case, liability. As a result, while the Congress member may not have been as precise as he should have been, he was and is certainly in the ball park. All Mr. Trump has to do to rebut this presumption is provide the evidence or in the case of altered evidence provide a copy of the unaltered document. As Mr. Trump has made it clear and as his allies in the Senate have said he has no intention of permitting the testimony or providing the documents as requested, Thus the presumption holds. While the presumption may not be determinative, it does have considerable weight if and when the matter goes to an impartial jury,
His due process rights have been fully protected. The rebuttal of the presumption is in his own hands.
Wikipedia –
Spoliation of evidence is the intentional, reckless, or negligent withholding, hiding, altering, fabricating, or destroying of evidence relevant to a legal proceeding.[1] Spoliation has three possible consequences: in jurisdictions where the (intentional) act is criminal by statute, it may result in fines and incarceration (if convicted in a separate criminal proceeding) for the parties who engaged in the spoliation; in jurisdictions where relevant case law precedent has been established, proceedings possibly altered by spoliation may be interpreted under a spoliation inference, or by other corrective measures, depending on the jurisdiction; in some jurisdictions the act of spoliation can itself be an actionable tort.[2]
The spoliation inference is a negative evidentiary inference that a finder of fact can draw from a party’s destruction of a document or thing that is relevant to an ongoing or reasonably foreseeable civil or criminal proceeding: the finder of fact can review all evidence uncovered in as strong a light as possible against the spoliator and in favor of the opposing party.
Bythebook, your comment fits HRC to a T. Great description of her & what the lefty dimms are trying to do to cover for “I got ’em to fire the dude” Biden. The dimms have some Congress peeps that are deep in the Ukraine corruption, & Lord knows how many others.
Repubs, dimms,…whoever. If they are involved in corruption, investigate & prosecute & Imprison.. All I ask is for REAL evidence be used. Not the kind of fantasy Bizzaro World donkey doo the Schiff for brains bottom feeder dimms made up. Dimms & progs need to get back in the real world & leave Fantasy Land.
SamFox
Can Epstein’s death be considered spoliation?
I think most would readily recognize that your application of the “concept of spoliation” here is deeply and profoundly flawed. And easily deconstructed by anyone with a competent mind before a jury.
If only Trump didn’t win the election.
Given Turley’s overlooking GOP Senator’s announced prejudgng the case that has yet to arrive on their floor, and which they are by oath supposed to remain neutral on, while condemning a representative’s logical and proper explanation of his thinking on his vote after the House has completed its work on this matter, it is informative to recall the butt hurt the Professor nursed from Swalwell’s polite but hard cross examination of him when he appeared before his committee. Anyone who looked at that tape will scratch their heads at the personal insults Turley dredged up later because someone critically but politely questioned his relevant previous positions. It was certainly no worse, and better than the treatment of fellow panel witnesses by some GOP members, which Turley did not object to. Turley has carried on this vendetta for days, and now weeks to the point of ignoring the fact that this is not a criminal proceeding and declaring the obvious fact that the key evidence is being hidden by the administration and absent my specific legal complaint – declaring an impeachment a hoax is not a legal argumemt, since that is a matter to be decided by the House, not the impeachee. One should expect Turkey to know all this.
Here’s the Swalwell examination which caused Turley to not be able to sit down for days. Make the children leave the room.
They have already seen there is nothing to this case. There is nothing left to learn, Dems have nothing, and its unclear what they are doing except trying to overturn an election they lost. They are trying to impeach on abuse of power, but can’t credibly claim that occurred. This is a farce and you know it.
You obviously know nothing of due process. Those who ramble on about presumed guilt are the ones hiding a deep dark secret. It doesn’t take a moron in DC to figure that out. Why not take Pelosi and all of the California freaks, invade Armenia and play Government to your hearts desire. Because my incompetent friend you’ve proven that you can’t do anything of ANY value in the United States of America
This isn’t a court of law and no one is going to jail.
We don’t need no stinkin’ due process.
The state I live in is very liberal and run by dims. A few years ago some state rep suggested that maybe the state should run a bank. Could you imagine these clowns running a bank?
Tuesday, November 3, 2020: Trump wins re-election with 400+ electoral votes. The Republican Party wins control of the House and strengthens their Senate majority.
By Christmas 2023 President Trump will have selected 2 more replacement US Supreme Court justices, and when he leaves office in January 2025 the US Supreme Court will have overturned Roe v. Wade. With President Trump’s nomination and Senate approval of the majority of lower Federal court judges, Trump will have changed the political perspective of the Federal courts for the next 30 years.
The Democrats have only themselves to blame.
Putting aside differences of policy and values, I am yet to see a Democratic representative that is capable of governing and holding an informed conversation. Their collective knowledge our history and founding documents is so woefully weak and distorted it is very discouraging. I believe it is important to the country that the democratic party have a compelling agenda and position, one that facilitates real debate, but 30 years of CNN and other networks, spoon feeding information to the public has made the Dems mentally weak and believing they can use crafted lines on the camera to sway the public. They have swayed some, mainly the elites, but have lost bulk of the country and this issue is a global phenomena.
https://assets.weforum.org/editor/large_BkAt8POTPYaWvq_TS_chUTQKlRuZok-h9a8A5APFNao.png
When I heard Swalwell say this, I first thought “Oh well, another hypocritical, biased Democrat”. Then I realized how terrifying it is that an elected member of Congress could be so ignorant of US juris prudence and the US Constitution. Swalwell’s ignorance extends to the millions in his generation who have been so poorly educated on the US and the Constitution because liberals have over-taken our academic institutions over the last 30 years and corrupted the educational system both academically and civilly. Swalwell’s ignorance is terrifying and this will continue unless we stop it. We must stop the absurd “1619” history that the NYT and liberals are promoting or the ignorance of Swalwell will be multiplied, permanently harming the USA.
Just who are these people that keep praising Trump?
This is the same knucklehead that mentioned nukes regarding people who would not give up their guns. The people that voted for him should be embarrassed and ashamed.
1. The House is ready to vote and members expressions of their reasoning well within order. Perhaps Turkey should be criticizing people like Sen Graham, who has a constitutional duty to remain open to the case yet to come to the Senate.
2. The impeachment process is not a criminal proceeding, the congressman is well within his obligations to note that the Presidents purposeful denial of documents and witnesses most in position to exonerate or damn him should be taken for what it almost certainly means: it will damn him.
More unlettered legal effusions from the head bull himself. What a maroon. Care to edify us on quantum physics, Bozo?
The whole impeachment process is a sham and constitutes harassment. If they had any real charges, they’d stop moving the goal posts. They’ve openly admitted that they would attempt to impeach him since he was inaugurated… if you can’t see that by now, you should get some therapy. Dems are about to be exposed and all the lights are going to come on. Get ready…
The impeachment process is not a criminal proceeding,
Going to the way back machine, Anon1 posted the following:
Spoliation of evidence is the intentional, reckless, or negligent withholding, hiding, altering, fabricating, or destroying of evidence relevant to a legal proceeding.
As a political proceeding, disputes between the executive and legislative branches have the judiciary to resolve that dispute. This is not in dispute. House Democrats are fully aware of this, but they refuse to follow that process. Instead, they are throwing a tantrum and declaring the president is obstructing them.
Swalwell is following in the footsteps of Jonathan Gruber.
EDKH:
Yeah but none of the charm. Who doesn’t love a guy who values abortion for economic reasons? Marginal child?
@Mespo- Charming indeed. Good old Jonathan should work with Gov. Northam on the economics of retroactive abortion. The results could be even more compelling.
I hope that most Americans are smarter than Swalwell and Gruber give them credit for.
EDKH:
“… the economics of retroactive abortion.”
**********************
The treatise on the topic is in German.
Swalwell is literally a gasbag. Who wants to be next to him?
That’s an explosive charge, Paul. And it stinks.
And yet it is true. And the National TV station tried to cover for him.
Maybe Benson?, Mr. Schulte. They have something in common.
Swallowed may well be the dumbest Dim in Congress. And that is saying something with Mad Maxine, Cowgirl Sheila and Guam is Tipping Hank roaming the halls.
We’d be better off with a gaggle of Monty Python Gumbys than those four.
Oh my God. It’s coming to fruition. We’re getting close now to fully replace Congress….
You got something against Gumby?
mespo – I have to vote for Mad Maxine for for dumbest Democrat in Congress, second only to Quigley, whose new book, Quigley on Hearsay will be out right after the first of the year.
If these types of prejudicial outbursts continue to be commonplace, would it be reasonable to ask veniremen if they were ever a politician, and if so strike them for cause?
Never trust a politician to administer justice.
You can just put the period after “politician.”
Perfect.