Judiciary Committee

“ To inquire into the conduct of the judges when confidence is evidently wanting, is the only true way to secure the respectability of the Judiciary. If that necessary confidence is withdrawn without cause, an official inquiry will restore confidence and the usefulness of the judges. This observation is supported by precedent and parliamentary usage. In that country from which precedents are so frequently sought, one precedent offers itself to recollection. In the year 1730, a committee of the British House of Commons was appointed to examine the jails. ”

“ That is particularly true when the President engaged in such conduct while Congress met to count. As the House Judiciary Committee explained in its previous impeachment report, the Framers viewed an attack on democracy—and the integrity of the Electoral College process, in particular—as presenting a paradigm case for impeachment:
The Framers also anticipated impeachment if a President placed his own interest in retaining power above the national interest in free and fair elections. ”

“ In others such committees are created by Bar Associations, of which almost every State has one for the whole State, while several have also one or more local associations. It is the duty of such a committee to inquire into any instances of professional misconduct that may be brought to their notice and either institute proceedings for a hearing before themselves or bring the matter to the attention of the court, so that they may be instituted there by its order and conducted by the public prosecutor. ”

“ Should the report of the committee, or even the amendment, be agreed to, the great offices, even those of the judiciary department, which are to continue for life, must be filled, while those most capable of filling them will be under a disqualification. ”

“ The judicial department, therefore constitutes one of those peculiarities, which distinguish the present government from the old confederation — a co-ordinate branch — which, in the opinion of youi committee, is absolutely necessary for the successful organization of our government.
It being one of the first principles of a republic, that the legislative and judicial departments be kept entirely distinct, the patriot has nothing to apprehend from the power or ambition of the courts. Speaking of the three great departments, an eminent civilian says, "the judiciary is next to nothing." ”

“ A. J. DALLAS. FROM NATHANIEL NILES. February 17, 1802.
DEAR SIR, Permit me to thank you most sincerely for the vote you gave in favour of Mr. Dayton's motion to refer the judiciary bill to a select committee; not because I am by any means satisfied it is not best that bill should pass, but because I earnestly desire that republicanism should on every occasion display the spirit of conciliation, as far as can be done without the destruction of principle. I am every day more and more satisfied that the cause is more endangered by the want of such displays than by every thing besides. ”

“ The gentleman’s objection, in fact, is one of the strongest arguments in favor of the resolution. The gentleman from South Carolina has, however, offered one other objection to the resolution, which merits some notice. He has said that if a committee is appointed for the object proposed by the resolution, men of character and talents will not accept of appointments in the Judiciary. ”

“ Congress is, after all, not a body of laymen unfamiliar with the commonplaces of our law. This legislation was the formulation of the two Judiciary Committees, all of whom are lawyers, and the Congress is predominately a lawyers' body. ”

“ MR. DAVIS: Good morning. This is the transcribed interview of Glenn Simpson. Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Feinstein requested this interview as part of the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigation of Fusion GPS's activities related to the dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, the Prevezon case, and the Magnitsky Act. ”

“ The President, elected for four years, is not again eligible for eight years. There are two Houses of Congress, a Senate of 13 members and a Chamber of 26 Deputies. A Permanent Committee of Congress sits during the interval between sessions, both to provide for emergencies and to prevent usurpation by the Executive. The Judiciary has a Supreme Court, two Superior Courts of Appeal, Civil and Criminal Courts with Lower Courts and Justices. ”

“ The latter method was introduced in the latter part of the nineteenth century and is steadily gaining in favor. A committee of a local bar is unavoidably subject to some local influences or prepossessions. A State board can act with greater independence and maintain with more ease a high standard of admission.
In early colonial days the legislature sometimes set a limit to the number of attorneys who could be allowed to practice before the courts. In some colonies the number at the bar of a particular court was fixed; in others the number of lawyers in each county. ”

“ The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not apply to any of the committee's investigative activities, including transcribed interviews. There are some guidelines we follow, and I'll go over those now.
Our questioning will proceed in rounds. The majority staff will ask questions first for one hour, then the minority staff will have an opportunity to ask questions for an equal amount of time. We will go back and forth until there are no more questions and the interview is over. ”

“ The second way in which the Committee’s intention is manifested is through the concluding phrase “all the above factors.” As introduced, H.R. 4412 directed the courts to examine “all the factors set forth in paragraphs (1) through (4) ” of Section 107. At the Subcommittee’s mark-up, this formulation was deleted in favor of the current language. The purpose of the change is straightforward: As the Supreme Court held in Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises, [35] the courts, in their discretion may weigh factors in addition to those set forth in the statute. ”

“ To the contrary, since Election Day, President Trump has done everything in his power, including taking steps beyond his lawful authority, to convince his supporters that they are victims of the greatest electoral fraud in history. He has blamed this “fraud” on state officials, state courts, federal courts, the media, Congress, and election administrators. He has convinced many of his supporters, falsely, that they actually voted him back into power and that their votes—indeed, their fundamental rights—have fallen victim to an array of nefarious forces working against them. ”

“ Impeachment is about preserving the Nation from a threat to the constitutional order, not imposing punishment. Nowhere did the Framers suggest that a President must be allowed to remain in office if his abuses involved speech that would otherwise be shielded from criminal regulation by the First Amendment. This would be a strange and irrational limitation: Presidents would be free to openly advocate the overthrow of the United States government, or the adoption of fascism, and Congress would be powerless to remove them on that basis. ”

“ Simply put, President Trump has no free speech defense. President Trump is not a private citizen, free to say whatever he wants without accepting the consequences or recognizing the effects it might have on our system of government. As the head of the Executive Branch, his words can shake the nation—and so he is held to a higher standard than private citizens. Moreover, when it comes to the impeachment power, the question is not whether the President was free to say what he said. ”

“ There is no merit to the startling and dangerous idea that a president may engage in high Crimes and Misdemeanors in their final weeks in office and escape the operation of the Impeachment Clause. President Trump incited an insurrection to try to break the Constitutional order, overturn an election, and prevent the ratification of a new President elected by the people in a free and fair election. In these circumstances, he has left the House of Representatives no choice. ”

“ A President who incites violence against the Congress and three of the highest-level federal officials—and does so while Congress counts the electoral votes in an election that he lost—imperils the constitutional system. This offense is precisely the sort of conduct warranting impeachment and removal from office. ”

“ You’re the people that built this nation. You’re not the people that tore down our nation. ... Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back. It’s like a boxer. And we want to be so nice. We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people. We’re going to have to fight much harder and Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us. If he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country because you’re sworn to uphold our constitution. Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. ”

“ This ignores the precedent this country would set if we refuse to impeach and the remedy of disqualification that the Senate may impose. Even wrongly assuming that President Trump poses no ongoing threat, impeachment sends the strongest possible message that, as John Adams said, we are a “government of laws, and not of men.” [255] Impeachment is a necessary measure to make sure that no President ever again attempts to incite his supporters to take unlawful action and overturn the will of the people. ”

“ To a greater extent than in other types of cases, a judge in successive NGI proceedings will generally have the opportunity to become closely acquainted with the intricacies and nuances of the NGI committee's record of treatment and behavior. If the judge anticipates that the committee will remain institutionalized, there may be a lesser need to open the hearing to the public because there is a smaller risk of the damage to the public's sense of justice, so fervently invoked by the Court. ”

“ Accordingly, the judgment for Congress to make is not whether President Trump had a free speech right to say what he said on January 6, 2021. It is whether that conduct qualified as a high Crime and Misdemeanor under the applicable constitutional standard. For the reasons set forth above, there can be no doubt that it did: inciting a mob to assault the Capitol while Congress meets in Joint Session to count the electoral votes in the presidential election results is plainly an impeachable offense. ”

“ President Trump has falsely asserted he won the 2020 presidential election and repeatedly sought to overturn the results of the election. As his efforts failed again and again, President Trump continued a parallel course of conduct that foreseeably resulted in the imminent lawless actions of his supporters, who attacked the Capitol and the Congress. This course of conduct, viewed within the context of his past actions and other attempts to subvert the presidential election, demonstrate that President Trump remains a clear and present danger to the Constitution and our democracy. ”

“ We should be able to devise means equally sure of arriving at a result just in itself, and satisfactory to all. The considerations in favor of a judicial committee of the two Houses are cogent, though they may not be conclusive. They are, the necessity of a speedy decision, and the desirableness of keeping, if possible, the ordinary courts out of contact with questions of the greatest political significance. ”

“ This form of reporting was, in fact, the form that the rest of the project took, which was, you know — I've done other kinds of research in Russia, but something this sensitive I don't think I've ever been involved in. So in an ordinary case you would try to gather public records and you would conduct yourself in a much more open fashion.
You know, Russia is a dangerous place, it's a kleptocracy and a police state, but it's also a giant bureaucracy and in some ways it's a much more open society, much more open than the Soviet Union ever was. ”

“ In addition to the investigating committees listed in the body of the Appendix, we think mention should also be made of the contemporary standing committees of Congress. Most of these committees have rules very similar to those adopted by the Civil Rights Commission. The Rules of Procedure of the Subcommittee on Privileges and Elections of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration are typical. Rule 17 of the Rules reads as follows: "There shall be no direct or cross examination by counsel appearing for a witness. ”

“ If the investigation which the committee was directed to make was judicial in its character, and could only be properly and successfully made by a court of justice, and if it related to a matter wherein relief or redress could be had only by a judicial proceeding, we do not, after what has been said, deem it necessary to discuss the proposition that the power attempted to be exercised was one confided by the Constitution to the judicial and not to the legislative department of the government. We think it equally clear that the power asserted is judicial and not legislative. ”

“ The chief justice and the presiding justices of divisions should form a judicial council or executive committee, with considerable powers over the way the court as a whole is run. To such a judicial council there should be committed the power to remove from office any judge, other than the chief justice, and to reprove, either privately or publicly, or transfer any such judge to some other division of the court for inefficiency, incompetency, neglect of duty, lack of judicial temperament, or conduct unbecoming a gentleman and a judge, for the good of the service, or to promote its efficiency. ”