Chief Justice John Roberts has carefully crafted a public persona as an even-handed non-partisan protector of “the law,” but don’t you believe it.
At the impeachment trial of President Trump, it looks for all the world like Roberts is just an automaton, blithely reading questions off of index cards that are presented to him alternatively by Republican and Democrat senators.
But it turns out the public persona is just a gag. Once again, Roberts is actually pursuing his own agenda behind the scenes.
In the latest case of Roberts putting his thumb on the scales to benefit left-wing ideology, it was revealed Wednesday that Roberts had blocked Sen. Rand Paul from asking a question about Eric Ciaramella, the CIA agent who has been publicly identified as the impeachment whistleblower.
According to Fox News, Roberts actually saw all the questions in advance (despite the kabuki theater being played out for the public) and had rejected Paul’s question. (We don’t know if Roberts deep-sixed any other questions.)
This is the worst kind of partisan charade because Roberts is pretending he is being a neutral protector of the rights of the whistleblower when actually he is giving credence to the Democrats’ Fake claim that the whistleblower has a right to confidentiality. No such right exists under the law, and as a member of Congress, Rand Paul has absolute immunity to say what ever he wants on the floor of the Senate.
According to Fox News:
The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis condemned what he called Roberts’ “arbitrary and unilateral censorship of senators and Senate business,” and reported that Roberts had initially sought to block even general questions of the intelligence community whistleblower. When Republicans threatened a vote rebuking Roberts on the record, Davis reported, Roberts backed down and decided only to prohibit mentioning the whistleblower’s name.
A reporter for Roll Call observed that during a break in the trial Wednesday, Paul was fuming.
“I don’t want to have to stand up to try and fight for recognition,” Paul shouted, according to reporter Niels Lesniewski, who noted that Paul’s complaint was “audible from the galleries above the chamber.”
“If I have to fight for recognition, I will,” Paul said.
While the president may prevail in the impeachment trial regardless of the outcome of Paul’s fight with Roberts, it is important to acknowledge that Roberts is taking the law in his own hands — and making a partisan stand by siding with the lawless Democrats on the question of identifying the whistleblower.
As the president’s attorneys have established, without naming the whistleblower, it is clear that Ciaramella is a biased actor who hated Trump and worked with Joe Biden on Ukraine policy in the Obama White House. Not being able to explore his role in setting up Trump for this impeachment is ludicrous.
Hopefully, Paul will succeed in getting Ciaramella’s name on the record in today’s Q&A session so that history can judge his role.
UPDATE: Paul expected to challenge Roberts on floor of Senate.
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Frank Miele has spent four decades in the news business and now offers conservative commentary to counter the left-wing bias in the national media. If you enjoy reading these daily essays, I hope you will consider purchasing one of my books. They are available through the following Amazon links. My new book — “The Media Matrix: What if everything you know is fake?” — shows that Fake News has been around for years. The “Why We Needed Trump” trilogy tackles the politics of the last two decades: Part 1 is subtitled “Bush’s Global Failure: Half Right.” Part 2 is “Obama’s Fundamental Transformation: Far Left.” Part 3 is “Trump’s American Vision: Just Right.” As an Amazon Associate, I may earn referral fees for qualifying purchases through links on my website. Also consider subscribing to Heartland Diary on YouTube by clicking here for News Every Conservative Can Use. My goal is to reach 1,000 subscribers.
