U.S. Senator Doug Jones of Alabama Urges Senators to Take the ‘Impartial Justice’ Oath Seriously –

By Glynn Wilson –

As United States Senators are preparing to take a special oath to remain impartial and impart justice in the impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump, more information is coming to light on almost an hourly basis that could have a bearing on the outcome of the trial, according to U.S. Senator Doug Jones of Alabama.

He reaffirmed his stance in a press conference call on Thursday to remain impartial and weigh all the evidence before deciding how to vote, brushing aside political questions once again about how he might vote.

In his opening remarks, Senator Jones mentioned the news just out today about a new report from the Government Accountability Office concluding that in freezing military aid to Ukraine, this president violated the Constitution and broke the law.

“Faithful execution of the law does not permit the president to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law,” the GAO says in the eight-page report.

“The (GAO) issued a legal decision that the president’s directive to withhold funding for Ukraine was illegal under current law,” Jones said, also mentioning new documents just released by the House Intelligence Committee. “The fact that there’s so much new information just reinforces what I have been saying for some time now. We need access to witnesses and documents, especially if they have first hand information.”

When I asked if he is encouraged by recent news reports indicating there is enough support from a few Republican Senators to get language included in the rules of the trial to allow documents to be introduced and to take testimony from witnesses, he equivocated.

“There’s a lot of things being reported … but until we get sworn in and get into this proceeding I don’t think you can take any of that to the bank,” he said. “I think all the things we are seeing in the last couple of days are troubling to a lot of people.”

As we reported last week, it would only take four Republican votes in the Senate to pass an amendment to the rules to allow witnesses and documents.

In Trump’s Upcoming Impeachment Trial, Senate Democrats Still Push for Witnesses and Documents

In responding to a question from the Associated Press, Jones said a key question is being raised by the GAO report.

“What was the purpose of just ignoring a law of the United States in order to achieve something?” he asked. “There’s a lot of questions here that I’m hoping by the end of this trial we can get answered. I’m hoping that we will see and hear from witnesses that could help us put together the pieces of this puzzle.”

Also in his opening remarks, Jones called for all Senators to take their oath seriously and put partisanship and personalities aside.

“I am hoping that the solemnity of the procedures today and the gravity of what we are about to do grips all 100 senators and that they will all follow their oath to do impartial justice,” he said. “We want a fair trial for the president. We want a fair trial for the American people.”

He pointed out again that the president has withheld information, documents and blocked witnesses from testifying, but his lawyers will have an opportunity to cross examine witnesses in the Senate trial.

“That cross examination is the mechanism by which we can best test the credibility and the truthfulness provided by all witnesses,” Jones said.

In brushing aside the political question, again, he admitted that his decisions and votes have potential political consequences.

“Look, every decision I make has the potential for following me in a campaign. That’s the political nature of this job,” he said. “But that is not what I’m being guided by. I’m guided by my oath and my experiences. That is going to be the sole guiding light for me as I make a decision in this incredibly important matter. Not just for the present, and for this current president and current Congress, but for future presidents …. This is a somber moment in American history. And I intend to treat it that way.”

In response to my question, Senator Jones said he remains “optimistic” that once the trial begins and everyone feels the “gravity” of the situation, his colleagues will not just “push something through to get a preordained outcome.”

“At the end of the day,” he said, “it’s the American people who deserve to have confidence in what is going on up here.”

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Meanwhile, when caught in the corridor of the Russell Senate Office Building and asked to comment, Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama did not seem impressed with the GAO report. But he didn’t dismiss it out of hand.

“I wouldn’t think that a GAO opinion, per se, would change anything,” said the Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman. “But we’ll listen to it, we’ll look at it and we’ll evaluate it.“

Some news outlets are making more of the followup comment to this remark.

“I don’t think they (the GAO) should be deciding who broke the law,” Shelby added.

But that is part of its job. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress. Often called the “congressional watchdog,” GAO examines how taxpayer dollars are spent and provides Congress and federal agencies with objective, reliable information to help the government save money and work more efficiently.

To be fair, the GAO report faulted the White House budget office for withholding the military aid to Ukraine, not the president directly, but of course they did it at the direction of Trump.

Shelby’s counterpart on the Senate Appropriations Committee, ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Shelby’s partner in crafting the federal budget resolution signed by the president before Christmas, had a different reaction.

“I have never seen such a damning report in my life,” Leahy said. “I mean, this is a nonpartisan thing. I read it twice. … To have something saying this is such a total disrespect of the law. It’s unprecedented.”

Leahy said the conclusion “screams” for the need to force impeachment testimony from White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also said it “reinforces, again, the need for documents and eye witnesses in the Senate. You see this more and more and more in all of this — this tangled web to deceive that the administration is engaged in.”

We have also learned that it was Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland who requested GAO’s opinion in a letter last month, noting that several administration officials have raised concerns about whether the president’s decision violated federal budget law. The move prompted two White House budget officials to resign in part out of frustration. Senior officials at the Pentagon and State Department sought an explanation for the hold, but were ultimately unsuccessful.

Van Hollen sent the letter one week after the House voted to impeach Trump on Dec. 18, charging him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for allegedly using his office and federal resources to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals — and then resisting the House’s investigation, according to Politico.

At issue in GAO’s legal opinion is how the Ukraine aid pause gels with the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, a law that sharply curbs the executive branch’s authority to alter congressionally appropriated funds.