Top GOP Senators Met With Trump Impeachment Attorneys During Trial to Discuss ‘Legal Strategy’: CNN

At least three top Republican Senators, all sworn to deliver “impartial justice,” saw fit to meet with former President Donald Trump’s impeachment attorneys as the trial was underway in the U.S. Senate.

“Several GOP senators just met with Trump’s defense attorneys,” CNN’s Manu Raju reports via Twitter. He mentioned Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who is accused of being one of the leaders of the insurrection, and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), considered the Republican most loyal to Trump.

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) was “also spotted going in.”

“Graham refused to talk about it after. ‘See you tomorrow,’ he told me,” Raju reports.

Trump attorney David Schoen “told us there’s nothing inappropriate about meeting with jurors in impeachment trial,” he adds.

“We were discussing their legal strategy and sharing our thoughts,” Senator Cruz told Raju.

Related: 15 Republicans (At Least) Refused to Show Up for the Full Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump

Schoen was even less concerned with honoring the will of the American people who elected the 232 members of Congress who voted to impeach then-President Trump last month.

“I asked Trump lawyer David Schoen if it was appropriate to meet with senators who are jurors, and he said: ‘I think that’s the practice of impeachment. There’s nothing about this thing that has any semblance of due process whatsoever.'”

That’s also false. Trump was given the opportunity to testify on his behalf, and refused. Impeachment trials are also not criminal trials, and due process is not a consideration.

Were it a criminal trial the defense could ask for and receive an immediate mistrial if it caught the defense meeting with the jurors.

The Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Government Operations expressed concern:

I’m no lawyer, but I’m fairly certain jurors aren’t supposed to strategize with defense counsel in the middle of a trial. https://t.co/5lpNrArq1B

— Rep. Gerry Connolly (@GerryConnolly) February 11, 2021

UPDATE:
Georgetown Law law professor blasts Cruz and Graham for “how unseriously” they are taking “their own oaths.”

I’m struck by how unseriously Cruz and Graham take their own oaths. Upon joining the Senate, they swore to defend the Constitution and faithfully discharge their duties. When this trial began, they swore do “impartial justice” according to the Constitution. 1/

— Heidi Li Feldman (@HeidiLiFeldman) February 12, 2021

Cruz and Graham both degraded themselves by backing Trump after he treated them like dirt. But now they are degrading themselves much further. I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them. 3/3

— Heidi Li Feldman (@HeidiLiFeldman) February 12, 2021