21 Republican Attorneys General Condemn Democrat Impeachment Trial

Twenty-one Republican attorneys general, in an unprecedented action, filed a brief in support of President Donald Trump Wednesday and condemned the Democrats’ impeachment trial.

They filed an amici curiae, or “friend of the Senate,” brief outlining the legal flaws used by the Democrats to impeach President Trump.

Louisiana Attorney General and Republican Attorney General Association (RAGA) Chairman Jeff Landry said in a supporting statement:

Republican Attorneys General have grave concerns about the House Democrats’ politically motivated impeachment process. Impeachment seems to be just another effort by Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, and liberal special interests to overturn the 2016 election results. The Democrats’ partisan attack on President Trump, using impeachment, will likely damage our American system of government for decades by weakening the separation of powers. Our filing urges the Senate to reject these partisan Articles of Impeachment to protect the integrity of the Constitution.

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes also joined in:

Republican Attorneys General agree that impeachment should never be a partisan response to one party losing a presidential election. Unfortunately, the Democrats never set out to ascertain the truth and have weaponized a process that should only be initiated in exceedingly rare circumstances.

The Republican attorneys general argued in their letter:

• Impeachment should never be a partisan response to one party losing a presidential election.
• Impeachment undermines American democracy.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) caused considerable damage through her decision to wait on sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate.

The Republican attorneys general wrote in their brief:

The House’s corrupt motives theory is dangerous to democracy because it encourages impeachment whenever the President exercises his constitutional authority in a way that offends the opposing political party, which is predisposed to view his motives with skepticism and motivated by its own motives to re-gain that very office. The potential for impeachment based upon raw political or policy disagreements will increase exponentially, transforming it from a rare, objective, bipartisan event to a subjective, common, partisan weapon.

…

If exercising presidential authority to conduct foreign affairs, investigating potential violations of U.S. law, and asserting executive privilege are “high crimes and misdemeanors” justifying impeachment, Presidents are but congressional puppets, impeachable whenever exercising their constitutional authority angers the political opposition in Congress.

“Contrary to what Speaker Pelosi recently claimed, our Founders would clearly not support the current impeachment effort,” the attorneys general added.

Read the Republican attorneys general letter in support of President Trump here.