By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on December 24, 2019
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who will preside over the impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump, should set the evidentiary rules that determine what witnesses may be called by each side and what evidence is relevant to the charges and is admissible during the trial. These evidentiary rules should not be determined by political hacks.
With a Congress and country divided along political party lines, the Republican Party's Senate leadership should allow Chief Justice Roberts to set the rules that will govern the trial. The nation does not need political hacks trying to rig the trial by suppressing evidence in order to reach a predetermined outcome.
Public confidence in Congress and the President is already at an all-time low. The nation cannot afford to lose confidence in its highest judicial official by reducing his critical role in the trial to a ministerial one.
