Dems’ impeachment trickery

On Wednesday, House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) takes over as ringmaster for the ongoing impeachment show. He’s billing his opening act as an inquiry into the “historical and constitutional basis of impeachment” and “the Framers’ intent.” Nadler claims he’ll be looking into what the Constitution’s authors meant by “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Don’t be fooled by Nadler’s scholarly posturing. He isn’t planning a civics lesson. Democrats are hell-bent on impeaching Trump, so Nadler has to rewrite American history and massage the meaning of the Constitution’s impeachment clause to fit the pile of non-evidence Adam Schiff’s Intelligence Committee has produced.

Count on Nadler to come loaded with a bag of legal tricks.

Trick No. 1 is the bait and switch. Dems have already laid the bait. They swear they’re reluctant to drag the nation into impeachment, but their duty to defend the rule of law requires it. “Our job is to follow the facts” and “apply the law,” says committee member Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). “No one is above the law,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insists.

Now get ready for the switch: At the hearing, Democrats and their hand-picked legal experts will argue that a president can be impeached without breaking a law. Suddenly impeachment isn’t about upholding the rule of law. The grounds are broader. Wide enough to drive a truck through.

Why the switch? Because Dems don’t have the goods to show Trump has committed a crime, even after three years of the Mueller investigation, followed by Schiff’s televised spectacle.