To the editor:
When we serve as jurors, we are legally obligated to decide innocence or guilt based on the instructions to the jury. We don’t get to declare instructions we do not like to be unconstitutional, do whatever satisfies our own wants and then declare that defying the court’s instructions is serving the Constitution.
A bipartisan group of roughly 150 lawyers signed a letter arguing that Trump could be convicted in an impeachment trial after he had left office. Signatories of the letter included the cofounder and other members of the Federalist Society, a legal group that wields influence in conservative politics. And there are two instances in which the Senate held impeachment trials for officials after they had left office — Senator William Blount in 1797 and Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876.
On Feb. 9, the U.S. Senate voted 56 to 44 that the impeachment trial of former President Trump was constitutional. On Feb. 13, party leader Sen. McConnell said the senators who voted to acquit had no responsibility to find Trump guilty because McConnell himself declared the trial to be unconstitutional.
In his Jan. 6 speech prior to the assault on the U.S. Capitol building, then President Trump said, “In no state is there any question or effort made to verify the identity, citizenship, residency or eligibility of the votes cast.” We all know from our own voting experience that this is a sun-comes-up-in-the-west falsehood. He continued, “They (congress members voting to certify the Biden election) want to play so straight.” And then, “When you catch somebody in a fraud, you’re allowed to go by very different rules.” And, “The Democrats are hopeless.”
The rioters that invaded the Capitol building fully accepted Trump’s directive to make their own rules. They defied federal law, made an assault that resulted in the injury of 140 police offices and five deaths and called themselves patriots.
Our Senators Moran and Marshall who voted to acquit Trump also agree with Trump’s directive to make their own rules. They defied the Senate’s finding of constitutionality, refused to fulfill their duty to decide Trump’s innocence or guilt based on the evidence of his actions and said their choice was saving the country from damage and was a way to work for the American people.
The proof that Trump’s efforts were intended to result in the attack is that during the attack he never called on the rioters to stop and leave the building. CSpan video and transcripts show this evidence which Trump’s counselors never disputed because they are public Tweets and broadcasts from Trump himself. A video link of Trump refusing the Republican House leader’s exhortation to tell his supporters to stop can be found at the link below and at the video times noted.
17:22 Account of House Minority Leader Republican Kevin McCarthy’s phone call with President Trump while the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the capitol building was on going. When asked to call off the attack, Trump said, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”
19:25 President counsel acknowledges the account of the phone call is true.
Our nation will eventually reverse and diminish Trumpism: whatever unsubstantiated or even openly false claims that are required to depict Democrats to be so wrong and so bad that whatever law defying action needed to satisfy our political wants, wishes and whims is justified. Trump did this with his words, the rioters did it with their actions and Congress members did it with their votes. We voters in Kansas will decide if we will be part of this reversal at our next elections.
John Sturn
Ellinwood
