Just a few hours ago, Public Citizen formally urged the United States Senate to disqualify Mitch McConnell from Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

Mitch McConnell must be disqualified from participating in Trump’s impeachment trial.

Add your name.

Our complaint, filed today with the Senate Ethics Committee, is very simple.

The Constitution requires senators to take an oath before the impeachment trial. And Senate rules specify that the oath requires them to render “impartial justice.”

But Mitch McConnell — saying, “I’m not impartial about this at all” — has already confessed that he will not honor this oath.

And so he should be disqualified from participating in the impeachment trial.

Let’s be clear: Impartiality in this context does not mean that senators enter the trial with no preconceived views. They don’t have to pretend they are a blank slate evaluating impeachment evidence for the first time.

What they do have to do is respect basic norms of fairness. Even if they have predetermined views, senators cannot enter the trial with a locked-in conclusion based on rank partisanship, blind fealty or cheap political calculations.

And they must work to ensure that the trial is structured to air and evaluate all relevant evidence, without built-in favor for or prejudice against the impeached official.

Mitch McConnell’s own public statements are contrary to the oath and duty of impartiality.

Mitch McConnell must be disqualified from participating in Trump’s impeachment trial.

Add your name to the citizen complaint now.

For justice and our democracy,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
 
 
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