Andrew McCarthy: Trump impeachment inquiry hearings – What Republicans, Democrats can expect
By Andrew McCarthy | Fox News
House Republicans face stark disadvantages as the public impeachment hearings kick off on Wednesday, both procedurally and substantively.
Procedurally, the problem is that the House is a majority-rules body (unlike the Senate, where the minority party has real rights, which force the majority to compromise). Democrats can run this show like autocrats, and that is precisely what they are doing.
The result is that the hearings are an abuse of power. To grasp why, it is best to refer to Chairman Adam Schiff’s grand jury analogy for his Intelligence Committee’s phase of the impeachment inquiry, which goes public this morning. A real grand jury never goes public. The only purpose of a grand jury is to make sure the prosecutor has enough of a case to proceed to trial. Therefore, only the prosecutor’s evidence is in play, there is no obligation to consider exculpatory information or the defense’s case for innocence. That is why, by law, the proceedings are secret. Publicizing such a hearing would be too prejudicial to the suspect.
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https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-impeachment-inquiry-hearings-republicans-democrats-andrew-mccarthy
