If Trump has called the Senators (jurors) on the phone ...

[dutch508]

Star Member kentuck (100,606 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215006124

If Trump has called the Senators (jurors) on the phone, should they be disqualified from jury duty?
You know he has called some of them.

That's just the way he operates.

I would be really surprised if this has not already happened.

 

Star Member Blue Owl (31,155 posts)

1. I would think that would render them ineligible to be fair and impartial

Star Member TwilightZone (19,574 posts)

2. It's not a criminal or civil trial.

The Senate is not a jury.

https://www.npr.org/2020/01/22/798631219/are-senators-trying-a-president-jurors-clinton-trial-ruling-says-they-are-not

Star Member kentuck (100,606 posts)

3. They are a jury.

It is a trial.

Star Member The Velveteen Ocelot (91,625 posts)

5. No, it is not, not in the same sense as a judicial trial.

It is a hearing to determine whether the president or other federal officer should keep his job (or in this case, whether he should be barred from any future federal office). The senators are more like a performance review panel than a jury.

StevieM (10,036 posts)

9. Absolutely not. The Senators are not jurors.

This came up during the impeachment stunt against Bill Clinton.

This is not a criminal trial, it is a political process. Trump has every right to call Republican senators if he wants to. It is worth noting that Clinton never did that, and he would have been crucified if he had. But it is not illegal or necessarily improper.

Besides, can you imagine the precedent that would set? The next time you had a GOP congress and a Democratic president they would impeach the Democrat and then find some reason to disqualify Democratic senators from the jury. Probably all of them. I actually seem to remember Mark Levin calling for Chief Justice Renquist to disqualify Tm Harkin from the jury when he said the Republicans' entire case was "a pile of dung."

bucolic_frolic (22,456 posts)

12. I don't think it will make any difference, the whole thing will be a disconnect

About 55 Senators will vote to convict, 12 will be absent, there will be a lot of shouting, Republicans won't listen to evidence, Trump will regurgitate Stop the Steal, and we could emerge with further polarization. The trial could also expand to multiple months of witness testimony. Get it over with. The Insurrection and the leaders belong in a criminal court with actual unbiased jurors. And I seriously doubt anyone will be expelled from Congress for their actions, no matter how egregious. Our government is being held hostage by thugs and right wing public opinion.

 

[Zathras]

Star Member Blue Owl (31,155 posts)

1. I would think that would render them ineligible to be fair and impartial

Well Dumbass, if being rendered ineligible because they can't be fair and impartial, then every Democrat in the House, Senate and the White House would not be able to take part in the Shampeachment of Citizen, not President, Trump.

[SVPete]

I've been out of circulation for a few weeks (see Sandhills). Did Miss Nancy & Dem Crew impeach a soon to be former President? And insisting on a trial for something it cannot effect?