Lev Parnas is to the Impeachment Trial as Julie Swetnick was to the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearing, if Republicans let Democrats get away with it.
Recall that after the Kavanaugh hearings were done, but before the committee vote, Democrats leaked that they had a surprise witness they had known about for several weeks, Christine Blasey Ford. Her claim that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school fell apart when the four people she said were present in the house that night all said they had no memory of such an event — not just the sexual assault, but even of being in the house as a group.
So out of the woodwork came multiple other accusers, particularly Julie Swetnick, represented by then-Democrat-presidential hopeful Michael Avenatti.
Swetnick pushed her ludicrous story out on cable news. The story was that Kavanaugh ran gang rape parties in high school in which men lined up in rape trains. The story was absurd on its face, but Democrats and liberal media treated it as more proof that no vote should be held on Kavanaugh until there were full investigations of all allegations. Swetnick’s claim not only was absurd, her background cast serious doubt on her crebility. Her claims fell apart when she was pressed. But she served Democrats’ purposes.
This is what “to Kavanaugh” something is: to drag a hearing out with serial accusations and accusers so that the process becomes interminable. And this is what is happening with the Democrats’ attempt to remove Trump through impeachment and trial.
The impeachment case was rushed through the House without Democrats seeking subpoenas of key witnesses or seeking judicial compulsion of witnesses who objected to testifying. There was a supposed emergency so dire that impeachment could not await a full House record. Then Nancy Pelosi sat on the Articles of Impeachment trying to coerce the Senate into trial procedures that would find new evidence through witnesses and documents subpoenaed for trial that would fill in the weak House record.
And true to form, a new witness is rolled out who supposedly is so important that the trial must turn into an investigative tool not a trial tool.
That person is Lev Parnas who has lots of opinions about Trump’s supposed knowledge of a conspiracy to coerce Ukraine to help Trump’s campaign — but Parnas has no first hand knowledge. And he is an even more suspect character even than Swetnick. Parnas has been charged with conspiracy, including making false statements and falsifying records.
Yet Parnas got a prime time interview on Rachel Maddow’s show with the largest audience Maddow EVER had. Maddow is an Alex-Jones-like conspiracy nut who nonetheless is the star of MSNBC and pushes conspiracy theories to feed #TheResistance masses, in this case to feed the argument that the Impeachment Trial needs to call witnesse and expand into an investigative endeavor. Lev Parnas is Julie Swetnick (no offense intended to Swetnick).
Shut this down. The Democrats behind this are not acting in any more good faith now than in the Kavanaugh hearing.
Weakness will get Republicans and the country nowhere. Let Adam Schiff put on his pathetic case based on the record in the House, then dismiss the charges as legally and constitutionally insufficient. Or move to a quick vote.
It’s bad enough to ‘Kavanaugh’ a confirmation hearing. To allow Democrats to ‘Kavanaugh’ an impeachment trial would be unforgivable.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY