Jonathan Turley and his Fascist Fans

Law Professor Jonathan Turley was trotted out by the Republicans to proclaim the Democrats are just big meanies trying to Impeach Trump and when one dispassionately looks and at the Impeachment case with Facts & Reason it falls apart.

One of the joys of being a conservative is having No Mind. Not brainless but, the condition of treating everything as though it happens Ex Nihilo. Thus, conservatives are free to treat Turley as some neutral arbiter and act as though his arguments are just based on sound reasoning and a simple application of the Law to the case. But, when one actually looks into the past you discover Jonathan Truly is a mendacious rightwinger trotted out repeatedly by Republicans to make disingenuous arguments which always happen to support Republicans.

Let's start with the whopper in the room, Turley by his own smug admission, "I've been friends with Bill Barr for a long time." Barr as Attorney General has been the hatchet man for the Trump Maladministration running interference and disabling investigations into Trump's high crimes and misdemeanors at every opportunity..

Turley was Ukraine-curious postulating that the Mueller Report was going to reveal Ukrainian election interference back in Feb 2019. As everyone knows the Republicans are pushing the FSB/GRU disinfo campaign that actually the Ukraine Government did all the hacking of the 2016 elections and even worse the Hacking was solely to help Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. This is pure Putin propaganda and remember AG Barr has been jetting about the world asking various Governmental figures of foreign nations to doctor-up some investigations into Ukraine or Hunter Biden.

But, Turley's hackery and bad faith arguments aren't confined to recent events. One need look no further than the 1998 Clinton Impeachment, where Turley was adamant that Impeachment must occur. But, much like Lindsey Graham, Turley feels comfortable conducting a 180 degree turnabout and arguing the exact opposite position when the President is a Republican.

And that gets to Turley's position in 2014 when he listed 5 myths about Impeachment and Turley wrote,

"While there’s a high bar for what constitutes grounds for impeachment, an offense does not have to be indictable. Serious misconduct or a violation of public trust is enough." 

Turley even cites the Founders beliefs that Impeachment could be for political crimes and states, if President Obama had redirected money approved by Congress for the Affordable Care Act for another purpose without Congressional approval this would be Impeachable act. This is precisely what Traitor Trump did in reference to the Ukrainian aid money when he asked for an explicit Quid Pro Quo and an investigation into Joe Biden. Of course, again the President in 2014 was a Democratic one and not a Republican and the House was controlled by the Republicans so Impeachment would have been okay, nay necessary even.

In his testimony, Turley takes special aim at Congressman Adam Schiff,

"The problem is not simply that the record does not contain direct evidence of the President stating a quid pro quo, as Chairman Schiff has suggested. The problem is that the House has not bothered to subpoena the key witnesses who would have such direct knowledge."

This statement is laughable on it's face as the White House has engaged in unprecedented obstruction, blocked and cited Executive privilege, and ignored subpoenas of key members of the Trump Maladministration with direct knowledge. But, Turley like all disingenuous know-it-alls convinced of their superior intellect went into a long and winding dissertation of "Bribery". It was a classic example of a smart or well read bullshit artist throwing up all manner of historical factoids to muddy the waters and culminated with a reference to the Sun-King,

"Louis XIV bribed Charles II to sign the secret Treaty of Dover of 1670 with the payment of a massive pension and other benefits kept secret from the English people. In return, Charles II not only agreed to convert to Catholicism, but to join France in a wartime alliance against the Dutch."

Turley concluded the case for Bribery hasn't been made by Trump's actions with regards to Ukraine but, no matter how one wants to parse whether or not military aid can be used as a carrot or stick to induce good behavior in a foreign power (which it can) the truth of the matter right now, and not in some detached Ivory Tower esoteric debate about the Law in the abstract, is Trump is a mobbed-up grifter who is either in cahoots with Vlad Putin or worse under the control of Putin, and in threatened Ukraine, a Nation which Russia an Vlad Putin invaded in order to annex the Crimea, in order to get them to create a phony witch-hunt into an American political rival.

But Turley recently wrote a blog post about Bribery, prior to his appearance and while filled with the same tired bad faith Turley arguments the comment section was replete with the standard #MAGA anger and hatred towards Congressman Adam Schiff. But, then on Rachel Maddow's show it became clear why Turley has a grudge against Schiff. In 2010, Turley and Congressman Schiff squared off in an Impeachment trial.

I've perused Turley's blog from time to time and the comments section is, as one would expect, infested with Fascist Magats. The comments continually invoke violence, the dissolution of Congress and wishes for Trump to use the power of government to punish and destroy the Non-#MAGA. Pure Fascism.

And that's where we are at today. Conservatism has moved beyond Turley's Era of William F. Buckley Jr's erudite meanness into pure frothing hatred at the Leftist establishment and violent wish fantasy fulfillment of yearning for the ability to round-up and murder millions of liberals. But, don't worry Turley himself will be safe and will from the comfort of his position as Professor of Constitutional Law at George Washington University Law School opine sagely, reference A Man for Seasons, and defend the Law.

See Also: Lawyers, Guns, and Money absolutely drag Turley's legal standing.
Adverse Inference: Turley as a so-called expert of Constitutional Law must be aware of the doctrine of 'Adverse Inference' , but as a bad faith "expert" he's going to keep obfuscating for the Magat Horde.