With the impeachment probe reaching bizarre new heights this week, many political observers weren’t sure exactly what to expect.
In keeping with the Democratic trend of secrecy and stealth, House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler waited until late Monday to release his list of witnesses for the coming hearings which begin on Wednesday. When he did, however, the response was deafening.
House Judiciary Committee chair Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) has announced the four legal scholars who will be the first witnesses at his committee’s hearings on the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
The witnesses include three chosen by the committee’s Democrats, and one chosen by the committee’s Republicans.
The Democrats’ witnesses include Harvard Law School professor Noah Feldman, Stanford Law School professor Pamela Karlan, and University of North Carolina Law School professor Michael Gerhardt. The sole Republican witness is George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley, a liberal who nonetheless has become a frequent critic of Democrats’ approach to the Constitution in recent years.
It appears as though the Democratic witnesses have been chosen in order to provide cover for Nadler and company, as they will likely be asked to explain why the impeachment process has been constitutional and necessary – an angle that belies the weakness of the Democratic argument.
Furthermore, these selections embolden the Republican stance that the process itself has been entirely flawed from the start because, if it weren’t, these constitutional scholars would be completely unnecessary.
