West Virginia Attorney General issued the following announcement on Jan. 22.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, together with a 21-state coalition, called upon the U.S. Senate to explicitly reject two articles of impeachment against President Trump.
The coalition, in a 14-page letter sent Wednesday, argued that articles adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives are legally flawed and factually insufficient, inherently destructive to the separation of powers and are contrary to the framers’ vision of impeachment powers.
“This partisan political effort undermines the democratic process, both now and in the future,” Attorney General Morrisey joined in writing. “The House unilaterally re-writes the Constitution, without the people’s consent to amend it. It weaponizes a process that should only be initiated in exceedingly rare circumstances and never for partisan purposes.
“This purely partisan attack on President Trump will damage democracy in America in the worst possible way: it will forever weaken the separation of powers – the very edifice upon which our democracy stands,” he continued in writing.
Attorney General Morrisey is separately sending copies of the coalition’s letter to U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore-Capito, R-W.Va., to underscore the importance of this issue to West Virginia and the nation.
The coalition’s letter scrutinizes the legal failings of both impeachment articles and underscores why the Senate must reject the unconstitutional theories of “corrupt motives” and “unilateral control” that provide a foundation for the articles.
The letter also examines the historical meaning of “high crimes and misdemeanors” and argues the House caused irreparable harm to the nation through its month-long delay in delivering the articles.
The coalition also contends its letter carries out the special duty of state attorneys general to defend the integrity of votes cast by their citizens and electors in the 2016 presidential election.
West Virginia joined the South Carolina, Louisiana and Utah-led letter with attorneys general in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.
Original source can be found here.