Who will be boss in the impeachment trial?
Moscow Mitch told a group at a campaign event (a fund raiser no doubt) that he could stop and dismiss the trial without any evidence presented by the House.
According to the Constitution The House is the investigative body in a impeachment proceeding and votes on whether to file articles of impeachment and charge the President. They are in effect a Grand Jury. If they vote to impeach, the articles are then delivered to the Senate and members of the house become the "managers" which act in the role of prosecutors presenting the case.
The Senate acts as a jury and just like in a judicial proceeding they cannot question witnesses or say anything. Their job is to vote on whether the Pres. is guilty of the charges and should be removed from office.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court acts as the presiding Judge in the trial.
That is where it gets complicated. How much is the Chief Justice bound by the Senate rules and Mitch is without question the boss of the Senate. If the Chief Justice is the presiding Judge, he should be setting the rules pertaining to the impeachment trial. Mitch shouldn't have the power delay or postpone or file a motion such as a summary judgment. I have read that the Chief Justice has to follow the Senate rules. But I am not sure what that means. Common Sense would say it means that the Chief Justice would not interfere with other Senate business. But those should only be procedural rules in my opinion.
I have read several articles that say McConnell has the power to dismiss the articles because of failure to be impeachable offenses. Or he might could pull a Derrick Garland trick and say the Senate Schedule was full and set a date after the 2020 elections.
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