Bizarre, Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law

Swalwell: Failing To Turn Over Documents Is Proof Of Guilt

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.

131 thoughts on “Swalwell: Failing To Turn Over Documents Is Proof Of Guilt”

    1. anonynous – I am not sure who Flower is but I have not heard back from someone called Flower

  2. Except the difference between Obama and Trump is that Obama turned over THOUSANDS of documents before going to court to argue over specific documents for Executive Privilege on F&F.

    Trump had turned over ZERO documents relating to impeachment under the new legal theory of “total immunity”. Under this theory, Trump CANNOT even be INVESTIGATED and ALL documents related to Ukraine are under Executive Privilege.

    1. Trump turned over thousands of documents to Mueller. Impeachment is a different animal
      And, lest us not forget that Obama thumbed his nose at Congress over the “Fast and Furious” debacle.

    2. Hasn’t he been investigated for over 3 years? Someone should tally up the number of investigations that are currently on-going or that have concluded, so that we can clarify the pace of your own criminal activities against the man elected to govern.

  3. I quote from PCS: “I don’t check to see what you have deleted.”

    But now he doesn’t know what I am talking about. Looks not to have all his wits.

    1. David Benson is the God Emperor of Making Stuff Up and owes me forty citations (one from the OED, one from the town ordinances and two from the Old Testament), an equation and the source of a quotation, after fifty-five weeks, and needs to cite all his work from now on. – David, oddly enough, some things have more than one meaning. I meant it one way, you read it another.

      1. David Benson is the God Emperor of Making Stuff Up and owes me forty citations (one from the OED, one from the town ordinances and two from the Old Testament), an equation and the source of a quotation, after fifty-five weeks, and needs to cite all his work from now on. – I live in road runner country. They are not as big as they look in the cartoon.

  5. David Benson is the God Emperor of Making Stuff Up and owes me forty citations (one from the OED, one from the town ordinances and two from the Old Testament), an equation and the source of a quotation, after fifty-five weeks, and needs to cite all his work from now on. – the proper term is seppuku.

      1. David Benson is the God Emperor of Making Stuff Up and owes me forty citations (one from the OED, one from the town ordinances and two from the Old Testament), an equation and the source of a quotation, after fifty-five weeks, and needs to cite all his work from now on. – I do not check to see what you have deleted.

          1. David Benson is the God Emperor of Making Stuff Up and owes me forty citations (one from the OED, one from the town ordinances and two from the Old Testament), an equation and the source of a quotation, after fifty-five weeks, and needs to cite all his work from now on. – David, I realize that you are not deleting your missives.

              1. David Benson is the God Emperor of Making Stuff Up and owes me forty citations (one from the OED, one from the town ordinances and two from the Old Testament), an equation and the source of a quotation, after fifty-five weeks, and needs to cite all his work from now on. – David, what are you whining about?

  6. Swalwel was formerly a prosecutor in California. Do his statements and actions relating to the Trump investigations and impeachment bring questions about his methods used when getting convictions in the past? Should those California defense attorneys be able to file appeals based upon the evidence that he has regularly lied to fabricate the impeachment inquiry and vote?

    1. NO! He is not speaking as a prosecutor. He has a right to free speech, just as you do. On top of that he is 100% correct. Trump has acknowledged his MULTIPLE Crimes many times and even bragged about them Malvany said “GET USED TO IT!”

  7. I’m surprised that there isn’t more comment about the just concluded HofR actions. 0

    1. DBB:
      Most of us are embarrassed for them. Sort of like meeting you friend’s wife after he commits suicide. Not really much you can say to either of them. “I’m sorry for your loss” about covers it.

    2. The lack of comments about the House action today is probably due to the fact that it’s anti-climactic.
      Interest might pick up next month to see how the Senate trial plays out procedurally, but we already know what the end result will be.

  8. Yes. They’ll have that finance issue settled in just 18 short months. A perfectly reasonable time frame

        1. Phyliss Rogers – I am voting for Mickey Mouse before I vote for Fauxahauntas.

            1. Phyllis Rogers – I keep telling people, Minnie Mouse would be a great first lady. Mickey has more brand appeal than any other candidate.

                1. Phyllis Rogers – thinks of the photo ops of Mickey and Minnie in the Oval Office, Mickey and Minnie getting on and off Air Force One, Marine One. Mickey giving the State of the Union?

          2. I tried voting for Steamboat Willie as a write in candidate. Bill Clinton got elected. Damned election workers.

            1. Darren Smith – Arizona has now decided to stop counting unofficial write-in candidates, so I am going to have to get Mickey officially registered as a write-in candidate,

          3. Mr. Schulte,
            You still support Mickey, even after you saw the video of the vicious attack by that psycho rodent!?

            1. Anonymous – I missed the video of the psycho rodent. Could you please resend?

                  1. Anonymous – If you watched The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, that would not be a surprise. Mickey does not take crap from anybody. 😉

                    2. Anonymous – I always thought it was a common law arrangement. And it is California, so Minnie is going to take Mickey to the cleaners.

          4. wow…both your racism AND your misogyny are showing in that one sentence. Election 2020 is the year of Angry white men acting the victim. It isn’t pretty.

              1. Mr. Schulte,
                I think I found your comment that Flower found to be “racist and misogynist”.
                It was your Mickey/ Minnie comment.
                PETA will soon be on your case, too!

          5. YET, she is the only one who can save AMERICA from bankruptcy (current healthcare cost increases, and unlimited Republican spending in WASTEFUL programs that ONLY benefit their donors.)

      2. the absurd hypocrisy of the right complaining that Dems wanted to impeach Trump from day one (in all fairnesss to Dems, he broke rules from day one) while the gop screams that Obama should be impeached in retrospect (that isn’t a thing) AND now you want to start impeachment on the furutre President. Go sit in a quiet room and get your priorities straight becuase this victim anger and irrationale thinking that has overtaken the gop is ugly and will consume your life in a way that destroys it and everyone around you.

        1. Flower,
          If you have examples of numerous calls for impeachment of any other president, starting on or before Inaugeration Day, you should present them.

  11. https://www.justice.gov/storage/120919-examination.pdf

    [ Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation

    This report was originally issued on December 9, 2019. The report was updated on December 11, 2019. ( 480 pages; 25 pages Executive Summary, which is worth the time and effort to read )

    [ OIG Methodology

    “…
    Our role in this review was not to second-guess discretionary judgments by Department personnel about whether to open an investigation, or specific judgment calls made during the course of an investigation, where those decisions complied with or were authorized by Department rules, policies, or procedures.
    …” ]

    In sum, the O.I.G. Report was and is a “Human Resources” Report.

    The Office of Inspector General of the Justice Department had and always will have an inherent and irrevocable conflict of interest, which should ( must!? ) disqualify the position of Inspector General and the Office.

    Whether Assistant Attorney General Durham faithfully fulfills his charge of a criminal investigation will be known in the fulfillment of time.

    This, including, but not limited to, Appointment of a Special Prosecutor ( Mr. Mueller ), Office of Inspector General … Inspector General … and Articles of Impeachment … as well this “blog” and especially the professor are primarily, if not exclusive political, politics.

    In other words, Bread and Circuses, nothing more or less.

    Months, years ago, I wrote if I were President I would have fired Mueller, almost from the get go.

    The result: we would be where we are now in less time, effort and cost. But, most importantly, less, far less, Bread and Circuses.

    I did not vote for Donald J. Trump and have not vote Democrat or Republican since McGovern v. Nixon.

    I was born in 1950. My junior high teacher gave me, loaned me, two books to read:
    1 The Power Elite, C. Wright Mills, 1956
    2 War Is A Racket, Smedley D. Butler, 1935
    ( today, one might read: Affluence and Influence, Martin Gilens, 2012 ) merely poor update of Mills, but more boring because of statistics, charts and poor, or bad understanding of probability theory.

    Why am I wrong?

    dennis hanna

    2. Thanks for the pdf, dennis hanna.

      “I was born in 1950. My junior high teacher gave me, loaned me, two books to read:
      1 The Power Elite, C. Wright Mills, 1956
      2 War Is A Racket, Smedley D. Butler, 1935”

      Lucky you. Sounds like you had a great teacher. If only more people had read those books, especially at an early age.

  12. The president ordered the entire executive branch to refuse to cooperate with the House impeachment process. He did not try to claim executive privilege on specific documents or conversations. He did not say that they want to get a court ruling on the issue. Instead he ordered people and departments to ignore all subpoenas and requests for documents. This is clear obstruction of Congress and is completely legitimate to impeach over.

    1. Nice DNC talking points. Please prove your claims or at least provide a link to the CNN (or MSNBC) clip you watched so we can learn from your source of perfect insight and knowledge. Otherwise, we have to conclude that is you, MollyG, whose wisdom exceeds all others.

  13. Reverend Billy Sol Swallowall preaches a poor sermon since the major guilt is in falsely accusing without proof. That is one solid hard core candidate for running a future imitation of a WWII geheime statz polizei. Just my opinion. Where do they dig up these relics from the days of the national and internationsl socialists?

  14. I don’t know much about this guy but I sure don’t want him in the government with that little knowledge and that much animas.

  15. Hear you, man. Trump’s taken things into the realm of the insane. And the insane breeds more insanity. Can’t put lipstick on the pig any more. Time for a change.

  16. ““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.”

    That sounds very familiar. I know I’ve heard that before, though not in exactly the same words. Oh, yeah, this:

    “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”
    -Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels

    And for those who would cry Godwin’s law on me, I’m not the one out channeling freakin’ Joseph Goebbels.

    1. Kind of like when Donald Trump famously said, “Only guilty people plead the Fifth”?

  17. Jonathan Turley continues to mistake the impeachment process for a jury trial and conviction the same as being found guilty.

    Wrong on both counts.

    1. DBB:

      “Jonathan Turley continues to mistake the impeachment process for a jury trial and conviction the same as being found guilty.

      Wrong on both counts.”

      **********************************

      You’re right it’s a Star Chamber in the House where no rules of evidence apply and the other side need not apply either.

      “In the Star Chamber the council could inflict any punishment short of death, and frequently sentenced objects of its wrath to the pillory, to whipping and to the cutting off of ears. … With each embarrassment to arbitrary power the Star Chamber became emboldened to undertake further usurpation. … The Star Chamber finally summoned juries before it for verdicts disagreeable to the government, and fined and imprisoned them. It spread terrorism among those who were called to do constitutional acts. It imposed ruinous fines. It became the chief defence of Charles against assaults upon those usurpations which cost him his life.”

      The Star Chamber was abolished in England by the Habeas Corpus Act 1640 after Parliament could countenance its injustice no more. You know history is taught to avoid mistakes of the past not re-create them.

      1. Impeachment in the Constitution is based on impeachment in the British Parliament.

    2. It was actually the far left extremists like Feinstein and Pelosi and Schumer who invented Guilty until proven innocent and the n declared guilty on third hand hearsay anyway.

    3. David:

      So, what you’re saying is, they can impeach an innocent man, because “conviction” is not the same as “being found guilty.”

      Thank you for summing up this abuse of power so nicely.

      1. The only thing conviction does is remove from office. This has happened to at least one judge; ask Turley.

        There is no guilt. That would require a criminal trial.

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  19. And how many thousands of documents has the executive branch turned over?? I believe it’s in the thousands!! Stop fishing for evidence!! There is none

    2. Gee, I wonder where the 2 face double tongue dimm ‘Constitution’ experts were when HRC not only withheld evidence, but destroyed a lot of it. Funny, Holder ran guns to Mexico & a US Border Patrol agent was killed with one of the them & dimms said nothing. . Not a peep from the hypocrites when the IRS was weaponized against Tea Party groups. Oh, they were conservatives, so it’s just A OK.

      Now the dimms want to impeach Mr. Trump with no evidence of any impeachable offence. I can’t wait to se the dimms get it hard at the next election. Their propaganda, lies, deception, covering up corruption & fake stream media are setting them up for a rude awakening.

      If it were not for double standards, dims & progs would have none.

      SamFox

    3. C. Brock,
      At one point of the Mueller investigation, the Trump Administration said that it had turned over 1,500,000 pages of documents to the Special Counsel.
      I think that experience, and the declared intention to fire off subpeona cannons at the White House once the Dems.regained the House, influenced the decision to say “get lost” when the latest rounds of subpeonas were issued.

      1. But this isn’t a criminal court and this is the President. The same standards don’t apply. And pleading the Fifth, btw, is basically an admission of guilt.

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