Democrat Pat Leahy – Not Chief Justice Roberts – to Preside Over Senate Impeachment Trial (Sekulow Recap)

The presiding officer for the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump will be a Democrat, not Chief Justice John Roberts.

Today on Sekulow, we discussed how Democrat Senator Pat Leahy is set to preside over the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump – a move that is clearly unconstitutional.

This came out yesterday after we went off the air. Chief Justice Roberts, while not putting out a statement, has made it clear to the U.S. Senate that he was not going to preside over the impeachment trial of a private citizen. In his mind, I think he’s put out there the idea that this is not the impeachment of a sitting President. Well, if this was another current officer or office holder in the federal government like a cabinet member or a federal court judge, then the Chief Justice would never preside. Under those circumstances the President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate presides. That is the longest serving member of the Party with the majority caucus of the U.S. Senate. Right now that is Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont, a Democrat, and he will be running the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump.

This begs the question: is this an impeachment trial or a trial of a private U.S. citizen by the United States Senate? The U.S. Senate does not have jurisdiction to try a case against a private citizen. Putting a partisan in charge of this process just demonstrates that this is not the impeachment of the President that the Founders’ intended. They set out the process in the Constitution, that it had to be the highest ranking judge in our judicial system, the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, who would preside in a mostly procedural role. That role was designed to keep things moving, that the proceedings would remain respectful and lawful. That role was not designed to be filled by a partisan.

My dad, ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow, made the point about this not being a real impeachment trial:

This goes to the point that this really is not an impeachment trial. This is a trial of a former president and the Chief Justice is not presiding. And now it is being presided [over] by Senator Patrick Leahy, the Pro Tempore of the Senate, meaning, what is this exactly? It’s politics. I don’t think we should elevate it to the standard of impeachment, but obviously that’s what it’s going to be called in the media.

This is a fake and phony impeachment. When you look at the U.S. Constitution it is clear that this does not fit and is not right.

The full broadcast is complete with much more analysis by our team about the latest developments in the plans for the U.S. Senate impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump.

Watch the full broadcast below.