Can Congress Compel President Trump to Testify in Unconstitutional Impeachment Trial?

The House impeachment managers attempt a ridiculous PR stunt.



Today on Sekulow, we are discussing the pre-hearing publicity stunt by Lead House Impeachment Manager Congressman Raskin and the other House managers in the impeachment proceedings. They tried to call President Trump as a witness.



This is going to be a really interesting week coming up. Of course, we’ve got the political trial of a former President of the United States. I’m calling it a political trial instead of an impeachment trial, because while it’s the trial of a former president, it is not the trial of “THE President” as the Constitution requires. That distinction raises serious constitutional issues as the U.S. Senate does not have jurisdiction to try a private citizen.


Congressman Jamie Raskin, the lead impeachment manager, sent a letter addressed to former President Trump that reads:

"As you are aware, the United States House of Representatives has approved an article of impeachment against you for incitement of insurrection."

It goes on to say:

"Two days ago, you filed an Answer in which you denied many factual allegations set forth in the article of impeachment. You have thus attempted to put critical facts at issue notwithstanding the clear and overwhelming evidence of your constitutional offense. In light of your disputing these factual allegations, I write to invite you to provide testimony under oath, either before or during the Senate impeachment trial, concerning your conduct on January 6, 2021. We would propose that you provide your testimony (of course including cross-examination) as early as Monday, February 8, 2021, and not later than Thursday, February 11, 2021. We would be pleased to arrange such testimony at a mutually convenient time and place."

Then they essentially threatened President Trump by basically saying that if he declines the invitation to testify, they will reserve the right to make an adverse inference based on that.



President Trump’s impeachment attorneys, Bruce Castor and David Schoen, replied to Congressman Raskin with the following:

"We are in receipt of your latest public relations stunt. As you certainly know, there is no such thing as a negative inference in this unconstitutional proceeding. 



Your letter only confirms what is known to everyone: you cannot prove your allegations against the 45th President of the United States, who is now a private citizen.



The use of our Constitution to bring a purported impeachment proceeding is much too serious to try to play these games."

That was an appropriate response by President Trump’s impeachment attorneys. Again, President Trump is now a private citizen and the Senate cannot not try a private citizen.

On Monday, we also plan to publish and send our own legal analysis to the Senate on the unconstitutionality of the impending trial. We’ll keep you updated as the Senate trial starts next week.



We also discussed a major pro-life case that we’re working on that will be going to trial in April or May. And in the middle of all of this, we’ve also got another lawsuit being filed today, involving a Freedom of Information Act request we submitted regarding Congressman Eric Swalwell (an impeachment manager) and the Chinese spy scandal. 



The full broadcast is complete with much more discussion by our team on the letter Congressman Raskin sent to President Trump’s impeachment legal team as well as their response. You’ll want to play close attention next week to our analysis, as no one understands impeachment proceedings better than we do.