Obstruction is the act/violation that could lead to a finding of contempt.
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This is exactly correct. There was no way to mistake this as him pretending to use Trumpâs exact words in order to fool anybody. But apparently the spin has netted more than a few suckers.
You missed option 3
Fuck you. Thatâs why.
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From the Twitter thread there, documents demanded by October 4th, and
https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1177675348106006528
Let the nobodies recess. The relevant folks are doing the right things in a timely manner.
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Couldnât simply refusing to answer questions while not expressly invoking the fif be enough?
The whole Biden thing is about withholding $1 billion right? 
Trump sees what he did as not being a big deal because he was only withholding $250 million or whatever. Heâs incapable of realizing both are bad things.
So the TV blaring in the corner of the room brought it up, then they discussed it?
In theory, they could also invoke executive privilege. Simply refusing to answer the subpoena without even asserting an excuse would likely constitute obstruction, but thereâs no self-executing remedyâone âremedyâ could be a contempt vote. However, weâre now in impeachment-land, and the more likely route is, as with Nixon, the failure to cooperate with the investigation is added as an article of impeachment and is taken into consideration when voting to impeach and, in the Senate, to convict.
The executive branch knows that Congress is no longer messing around. If they stall and delay and assert BS privileges or refuse to answer questions or answer falsely, it just hurts their claim that they shouldnât be impeached and convicted. Even most Republicans in the Senate care that the Executive not place itself above Congressâ constitutional authority. Note that Clinton actually âcooperatedâ with the impeachment proceedings and Trump will be expected to do the same (lol), and will have very little in the way âlegalâ arguments not to.
Remember, Nixon was ordered to hand over the tapesâof highly âexecutive privilegedâ communications within the oval office with his top advisorsâbecause privilege is actually very narrow and doesnât attach to crimes. In this case, thereâs no time to go to the SCt (and Dems donât want to), and (just like with failure to produce relevant evidence in a civil trial), any failure to cooperate with the impeachment by producing witnesses and evidence will give rise to adverse inferences that the material or testimony would be damning.
Congress has been playing (poorly) according to one set of traditional rules based on norms and accommodation between two co-equal branches of government. However, the Executive is now the defendant in a quasi-criminal inquiry, and the rules are now different. The gloves are off. He can simply stonewall, but the House will vote to impeach, and significant stonewalling will genuinely anger the Senate and, at best, significantly damage Trumpâs already weak reelection prospects.
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Good point, Trump definitely views things as legal/not legal and has no concept of right/wrong. Since âBiden did the same thing,â Trump assumed tying aid to firing a prosecutor was was def âlegalâ no matter the motivation. So there was no way anyone could question him about it and he did it openly in front of everyone.
I know I shouldnât be amazed at anything anymore, and Iâm sure this has been said before at least in part, but Iâm still fucking amazed.
- Repubs have been playing their constituents racism, conspiracy theories, and outright craziness for decades.
- The base gets sick of innuendo and finally nominates one of their own conspiracy theorists racist lunatics.
- The lunatic doesnât know how to separate propaganda from reality so he truly believes the Biden conspiracy theories he sees on TV.
- The lunatic assigns the only person close to him who is more likely than he is to admit to felonies on national TV to be the point of contact for said felonies.
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Must suck to be you?
I for one find it completely and utterly SHOCKING that the Republicans chose to operate in bad faith and take it a different way.
Shorn of its political complexity and in a sports analogy, the essence of what Schiff did would be like being backed up to your own 10-yardline with a few seconds left in a game you were losing by six points against a horrible opponent due to 3+ quarters of ineptitude⌠You try to throw a bomb down the right sideline to a receiver who has stone hands, and happens to be triple covered. But, alas, pass interference is called! Itâs first and goal at the 1. You get one untimed play.
Your quarterback, Adam Schiff, is 6â5" and 250 pounds. A massive man for a quarterback, and heâs 99% on quarterback sneaks. Your center and right guard are both All Pros and the other teamâs starting defensive tackle is hurt, and the backup has been getting manhandled since he came into the game. Your coach calls a quarterback sneak.
Schiff gets into the huddle and says, âGuys, I know coach called a quarterback sneak, but thatâs kind of boring. Weâre going to go four wide, and run a play action, fake end around, fake reverse, with a naked bootleg to the short side of the field⌠then Iâm going to throw it back across the field to my number four wide receiver. This is going to look awesome! Itâll be a legendary way to win the game!â
That is in sum and character how Schiff was trying to communicate to the American people. And itâs only a little hyperbolic.
The play broke down, of course, and right before he was hit he had to launch a prayer back toward that wide receiver who was in double coverage. It fell incomplete.
The good news is that it happened in the season opener, so thereâs time to recover.
Welcome back nunnehi!
Of course 99% of Americans wonât read the transcript and didnât watch the hearing, so all that actually matters is what Hannity, Carlson and Ingraham can make of it with a few soundbytes from Republican Congressman.
Itâs like you have an option of two routes to walk to from school. On one route you always get beaten up and get your lunch money stolen. You keep walking down that same street, getting a black eye and losing your lunch money. Youâre not doing anything wrong, but damn if you still arenât the dumbest kid walking to school. Just take the other street, Adam!
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I have to say, nunnehi, this post is without a doubt, from start to finish, word for word, absolutely, entirelyâŚ
something I agree with.
(Well, I might have tweaked the poker analogy a bit, but I can let that slide.)
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I feel attacked 
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He withheld $400 million that had already been appropriated by Congress. Even Mulvaney was shocked and thought it nonsensical that he would do that with no apparent reason.
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Another note, not only will there be an ongoing Goodfellas roll up, to one extent or another, but the impeachment procedures and expectations will in large measure be payback for the Clinton impeachment. He played by the rules, in part because the case was BS and he was going to win, and now Trump will also be expected to play by the rules. After 20 years the chickens are coming home to roost.
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Right. As long as Trump plays by the rules, weâve got him.
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You are a very good poster I like you a lot.
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The main thing here is that heâs fucked if he pays by the rules and heâs fucked if he doesnât. Either heâs convicted in the Senate due to the actual facts or obstruction of the process or he loses the election due to the actual facts or obstruction of the process.
Heâs basically caught between a rock andâŚanother rock.