Tuesday during an appearance on Huntsville, AL radio’s WVNN, Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL) argued Senate Republicans would be justified in moving for the immediate dismissal of the articles of impeachment set to be transferred from the House of Representative to the Senate later on Wednesday.
According to the Alabama Republican, the handling of the initial whistleblower complaint and other actions associated with the impeachment effort would warrant dismissal by the U.S. Senate.
“We’ve heard that Nadler has said that he is planning to bring other articles,” Palmer said on “The Jeff Poor Show.” “Let them. This last time was completely botched. I don’t think the Senate should give serious consideration to the articles when they get there. Now, I don’t know what Majority Leader [Mitch] McConnell is planning to do, but I think he would be fully justified in basically having a vote right away and dismissing it. I tell you why — start with the whistleblower. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but Mary McCord, who was responsible for reviewing the whistleblower’s complaint, made a change to the complaint. Under the statute, it was clear that no complaint could be filed if it was based on second-hand information.”
“Clearly, the whistleblower did not have first-hand information,” he continued. “This individual, and we know who it is, was not on the call. This was all second-hand information. The whistleblower had already contacted Adam Schiff’s office and submitted the complaint on the original form, which clearly states it cannot be second-hand information. Mary McCord went back and changed the form after the fact.”
Palmer also cited House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) mischaracterization of the events and what he described as a potential effort to intimidate a witness by Rep. Earl Blumenauer’s (D-OR) call to boycott Gordon Sondland’s hotel chain, six locations of which are in Blumenauer’s district, as additional grounds for dismissal.
“I think the whole thing was a sham from the beginning,” he added.
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