As President Donald Trump prepares to endure his upcoming impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate, one of his Republican allies, Sen. Josh Hawley, claimed on Thursday that he will be introducing a measure on Monday to officially have the House-passed articles of impeachment against Trump dismissed.
According to The Hill , Hawley said in a tweet that in a “real world” situation, a case that went without a trial due to the prosecution not moving forward with it would normally be tossed out, before explaining that he would seek to do just that in the case of Trump’s impeachment.
“Dems said impeachment was URGENT. Now they don’t want to have a trial, because they have no evidence. In real world, if prosecution doesn’t proceed with case, it gets dismissed. So on Monday, I will introduce measure to dismiss this bogus impeachment for lack of prosecution,” Hawley tweeted .
Hawley then went on the attack, blasting House Democrats for launching the impeachment inquiry which eventually progressed to the point of two articles of impeachment being passed against the president.
“This will expose Dems’ circus for what it is: a fake impeachment, abuse of the Constitution, based on no evidence. If Dems won’t proceed with trial, bogus articles should be dismissed and @realDonaldTrump fully cleared,” Hawley said in the two-part tweet.
As The Washington Examiner reported, Hawley’s criticism stems from the surprise announcement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi following the passing of the impeachment articles last month that she would not be transmitting them right away to the Senate for trial, as is customary in previous impeachment situations.
Part of her reasoning for stalling the impeachment process is that she believes Senate Democrats should be able to call their own witnesses for the trial — which is something Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell apparently has no plans of allowing at this time.
So far, Pelosi has refused to comment on when she might consider formally transmitting the process to the upper chamber, which has resulted in intensifying backlash from Republicans and the president himself.
McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer were supposed to begin the arduous process of negotiating rules for the upcoming impeachment trial before Congress recessed for the holidays, however, their planned meeting reportedly broke down after talking for a mere 20 minutes.
Though Hawley stated he would move to have the articles dismissed, other top-ranking Republican senators have already publicly disagreed with the idea, including McConnell. The Kentucky senator believes the impeachment should proceed as normal with a full Senate trial, presumably in an effort to provide a full acquittal for the president.
