A handful of Republican state attorney generals are decrying the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.
In a letter exclusively obtained by Fox News, attorney generals of 21 states wrote to the Senate on Wednesday, where they denounced the impeachment process, which, as they say, “threatens all future elections and establishes a dangerous historical precedent.”
As the Senate kicks off its impeachment trial, the state attorney generals are urging the upper chamber to reject the two articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — against Trump.
“Thus, our duty to current and future generations commands us to urge the Senate to not only reject the two articles of impeachment contained in H. Res. 755 — ‘abuse of power’ and ‘obstruction of Congress’ — as lacking in any plausible or reasonable evidentiary basis, but also as being fundamentally flawed as a matter of constitutional law.”
The state attorney generals continued in their letter, “If not expressly repudiated by the Senate, the theories animating both Articles will set a precedent that is entirely contrary to the Framers’ design and ruinous to the most important governmental structure protections contained in our Constitution: the separation of powers.”
They go on to claim that Congressional Democrats are using impeachment as “a partisan response” to losing the White House in the 2016 presidential election. They warn that, as they believe, impeachment will “[undermine] the integrity of the 2020 presidential election.”
Read part of the letters’ conclusion below:
“Because the legal theories underlying both Articles I and II are both legally flawed and factually insufficient, are inherently destructive of separation of powers, and are contrary to the Framer’s vision of the impeachment power, the Senate should explicitly reject them. Even more importantly, it should reject them to protect the institution of the Presidency and the Constitution from such a dangerous precedent for future generations. […] This partisan political effort undermines the democratic process, both now and in the future. […] This purely partisan attack on President Trump will damage democracy in America in the worst possible way: it will forever weaken the separation of powers – the very edifice upon which our democracy stands.”
The Senate debated on Tuesday the rules proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — which his initial rules package received disapproval from the top Senate Democrat. Early Wednesday, however, the Senate passed rules for the Senate’s impeachment trial.
As for the Senate’s trial procedures, opening arguments will begin on Wednesday. The House impeachment managers and Trump’s lawyers will each have 24 hours to present their case over six days.