Opening StatementI have a case for the American people. It is to deliver the ultimate verdict on the high crimes and misdemeanors of Donald J. Trump. You are the witnesses, the victims, and—most important—the judges and jury. Only you can stop him—or allow his high-crime spree to continue. All other remedies available under our constitutional system have been tried. Some have worked, some have failed, and now the final judgment is up to you.
I ought to know. For over three years now I have been pursuing President Trump for his offenses against the law. First as one of Trump’s frequent litigation adversaries, involved in almost three hundred legal matters opened against him, his administration, or his allies. Then as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee for an entire year of intense activity that culminated in my sitting on the floor of the House and then of the Senate as those two awesome chambers—the most powerful legislature in the world—debated and adjudicated the articles of impeachment.
Indeed, I helped lead the writing of those articles. I was the first staff member to begin drafting them, the last to approve final edits, and involved at every stage in between. They revealed, and the trial proved, that the president’s shocking behavior toward Ukraine and his political opponents was part of a long-running, ongoing pattern of Trump’s abusing his power and then covering that up. The articles showed that the president has violated the public interest to further his selfish personal and political gain for years, without regard for how it would hurt each of you and our country. Most urgently, the articles made it clear that when the next crisis came—as we warned it would—he would repeat the pattern of abuse and cover-up, to all of our peril.
Despite alerting American institutions to the misconduct of the president, and despite some other successes along the way, our collective efforts have thus far fallen short of removing Trump. Federal and state prosecutors have not ultimately stopped him. Nor have the courts. And Congress has not halted him. As a result, the crises rage on. This is why I’m appealing directly to the highest adjudicating body in our democracy. You, the people.
From a number of angles, I have helped rain down legal, political, and public pressure on the president, exposing his misdeeds. These blows would have driven a lesser offender to apologize, recant, and perhaps even resign. Instead, President Trump repeatedly did what he has always done, since the beginning of his career: dodge, deny, and degrade the rule of law. As a result, over the course of my year as special counsel, I contemplated a vast array of impeachment articles. All of them displayed, and were intended to disrupt, Trump’s cycle of abusive, obstructive, and criminal misconduct. Within the Judiciary Committee, we maintained a secret running indictment: ten articles of impeachment in all. Ten articles, not two, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Every one of them will be revealed and explained, for the first time, in the trial that awaits you in these pages. They would have been sufficient to end Trump’s presidency in a normal world. The two articles that made it to judgment in the Senate certainly should have been. But ours is no normal world, and Trump is no ordinary criminal.
Our president’s offenses unquestionably include “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” under our Constitution. Abuse of power in pressuring foreign governments to investigate his U.S. political opponents. Obstruction of justice and of Congress, making true his pledge to “fight all the subpoenas.” Both the abuse and the obstruction are of a kind we have never seen before in American history. They are paired with other corruption, from offering hush money to mistresses to aid his campaign to the acceptance of forbidden foreign and domestic emoluments after he won. Abuse, obstruction, corruption: Trump has violated the law at a rate and scale unimagined by our founders, such as Franklin, Madison, and Jefferson, all of whom must be spinning with outrage in their tombs.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I will guide you through the unvarnished story of the president’s crimes and their prosecution. Along the way, we will go backstage for a full year of impeachment efforts, starting in February 2019 and ending twelve months later with the conclusion of the Senate impeachment trial. If you have been following this tale, you may be wondering what essential evidence and which elements have evaded the American collective consciousness, including because they were blurred in the chaos. The portrait reflected in conventional wisdom and the media is lacking in crucial features—ones that yield new insights into the repeated strategy, defenses, and tactics used by our president and his often-felonious cohorts.
As we go through this impeachment year together, you will be able to see his pattern of misconduct from a fresh angle, and be better able to trace the through line of Trump’s life, candidacy, and presidency: his radical selfishness and assault on our national interest. He asserts his will and then manages the outcome—immorally, illegally, repeatedly.
These revelations foreshadow the dangerous, even deadly moves he has made since the impeachment and trial, is making as you read this, and will continue to make in the months leading up to the election. The president’s response to COVID-19 follows a pattern of abuse and obstruction similar to the one that got him impeached. He is yet again putting his own personal and political interests first in his response to the pandemic—not America First, but Trump First. The same propensity for quid pro quos that led to his 2016 statement to Russia that “you will probably be rewarded mightily,” or his 2019 one to Ukraine to “do us a favor though,” has characterized his treatment of governors seeking aid in the current crisis: “If we do that, we will have to get something for it.” The president’s obstruction continues, too. The nonstop flow of lies, the attacks on inspectors general and whistleblowers, the refusal to cooperate with congressional investigators—it is all of a piece, only now it has turned deadly. We warned of exactly this during the president’s impeachment and trial. It will not only continue; it will get worse, unless you stop him.
Some of you may be skeptical. You may think I am being too extreme. I understand your position. I too once urged that people keep an open mind regarding the Trump presidency. I even went as far as assisting his presidential transition, starting before he was elected. I was prepared to play a role in easing him into his presidency. I have dined with the president. I am acquainted with his daughter and son-in-law and many of those around him. I once hoped, sincerely, that Trump could be an ethical president. I learned better. I later held on to the desperate, optimistic belief that Trump’s behavior would change, or that his systematic, reckless wrongdoing could be curbed. I now know that, too, to be false.
I will explain why I believe this so you can make your own decision. If, after you weigh the case, you agree that he is guilty, you have the power to bring this illicit cycle to a halt. He will not change. His crime spree will continue unless we, as a nation, get in his way. All of you, and you alone, can stop him. So now my optimism lies with the American people.
For those of you who might not have followed the barrage of headlines, who long ago threw up your hands, or who perhaps sense that the president is a bad guy but do not believe there is anything new to learn or anything to be done, welcome. I ask you to keep an open mind as we revisit proof of wrongdoing that has eluded sustained public attention in the dizzying stream of events. The danger we are facing is unprecedented and more terrifying than has been acknowledged. It affects every one of us. As you are reading this, the cancer of Trump’s presidency is metastasizing throughout America and indeed our world. I beseech you not to underestimate its power, for unless something is done, its consequences will be felt for generations.
What follows is the evidence required for you, the ultimate judges and jury, to render a decisive verdict come November. This fight is not over. Change remains within our grasp, and we have the ability, and the duty, to hold the president accountable. Even with the last chapter unwritten, what follows is the story of our time, shaped by villains and heroes of all varieties who have ushered this nation through waves of crushing disappointment and surges of genuine triumph and vindication.
Each one of you is a participant in that story. The last chapter is yours to write; the verdict remains in the balance. Your decision will be made in November 2020, in the ultimate impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump.
Copyright © 2020 by Norman Eisen. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
