The Fruit of Two Poisonous Trees

In our constitutional legal system we have a vital concept named “The Fruit of the Poisonous Tree.” The idea is that if the tree is poisonous, it is foolhardy to eat its fruit.

Thousands of prosecutions have been halted in their tracks because the judge determined that the genesis of the investigation was a “poisonous tree.” For instance, if the police stop a car because they feel the driver looked “suspicious,” anything they find during that stop would be fruit of that poisonous tree. Another example of this is an illegally obtained search warrant or an improper police search of a home or office without a warrant. Anything illegal found during such a search would be deemed to be improperly obtained, and the case would be thrown out unless the police had other properly obtained evidence.

Prosecutors will often argue that the improperly collected evidence would have been discovered anyway at some point in the investigation. The court’s response is usually, “There wouldn’t have been an investigation were it not for an improper or illegal act by the police or prosecutors.”

With their thousands of small and large attacks on our president and his supporters, the Democrats have divided our nation even more than did the Civil War. They have afforded the president far less due process and fairness than were given to the accused witches at the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Perhaps this is why Mr. Trump refers to the non-stop three-year persecution against him as “Witch Hunts.”

Adam Mill, an attorney who has studied the Salem Witch Trials in-depth, writes in The Federalist, “It’s fascinating that Pelosi cloaks herself in the 'rule of law' when she cannot muster minimum principles of due process that attended the witch trials of Salem almost 100 years before the U.S. Constitution. Since the witch trials, our founders codified many of these principles in the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution (a public trial, public witness testimony, the right to know the crimes one is accused of, the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses, etc.). Read that again:

"It’s fascinating that Pelosi cloaks herself in the 'rule of law' when she cannot muster minimum principles of due process that attended the witch trials of Salem almost 100 years before the U.S. Constitution."
~Attorney and Author Adam Mill

President Trump has suffered at the hands of faithless government agents in this way in two major cases. The first was the so-called “Steele Dossier,” a document replete with lies and errors funded by the president’s then-political-opponent, Hillary Clinton as well as the Democratic National Committee.  Steele was a former foreign spy who was hired to dig up political dirt. Even the now-disgraced former Director of the FBI, James Comey, described the dossier as “salacious and unverified.”

It is notable that Comey personally signed off on at least three secret FISA warrants to investigate and invade the privacy of both Trump and his associates based on the Steele Dossier. These were obtained after he publicly referred to Steele’s work of fiction as “salacious and unverified.” He also approved the applications for other such warrants and renewals of earlier warrants.

Do you remember when the Democrats and the media mercilessly attacked then-candidate Trump for claiming that he and his team were being secretly investigated, including electronic surveillance? It turns out he was right - thanks to a treasonous FBI Director and corrupt Justice Department officials, assisted by secret FISA Courts.

FISA is short for The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. FISA is unconstitutional. Congress is not allowed to pass laws that violate or undermine our Constitution. The only way this distressing act could become legal would be by a constitutional amendment. Under the act secret judges preside over secret courts to approve warrants based solely on the claims of Justice Department employees. Little if any evidence is required. In the case of the affidavits Comey signed, he verified that he had investigated the dossier that supports his application, and found it to be true and reliable. The judges took his word on the matter since they have no ability to do an investigation on their own.

The FISA courts are much like Grand Juries. Both should be abolished because they both deprive the accused of their constitutional right to face their accuser. In many cases, the accused is not even aware that he is being investigated! If the accused is called before a grand jury he or she is not allowed to have a lawyer with them. Only the prosecutor can present evidence; this right is unconstitutionally denied to the accused.  They, like the FISA Courts, are held in complete secrecy.

Government secrecy breeds government corruption. There are certainly instances in which secrecy is necessary. But even in these instances (which should be very rare), those who demand secrecy should have oversight. The FISA Courts supposedly provide such oversight, but they themselves are held in secret, and they cannot oversee actions which are opaque to them. The FISA rulings in favor of Comey and Obama’s “Justice” Department are perfect cases in point.

Government secrecy breeds government corruption.
~Dr. Tom Barrett

The second major “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree” was the so-called “whistleblower” complaint by a CIA employee closely tied to a current Democrat presidential candidate. He does not qualify as a whistleblower because that statute is designed to protect employees from retaliation for exposing wrongdoing in their workplace. Trump is not a member of the CIA, and the allegations made by this criminal have to do with affairs of state, not intelligence.

The genesis of the current “impeachment inquiry,” was – like the Mueller probe – an illegal act. This federal employee leaked sensitive material in violation of several federal laws. Heads of state must have the ability to deal directly with other heads of state in order to conduct the foreign policy of our nation, including keeping us safe. After this debacle, with the Democrats forcing the president to reveal his private conversation with the president of Ukraine, what foreign prime minister or president will feel comfortable having a phone conversation with President Trump or any future president?

This has set a terrible precedent. It will be a very expensive precedent. Phone calls of this type are never one-to-one. Several dozen people, including translators and advisors, listen in on every call – and are sworn to secrecy. (Yes, this is one of those occasions where I believe secrecy is warranted. If the president is speaking to a head of state in a negotiation that would benefit the U.S., but that would be unpopular in his own country, he needs to know that his privacy will be respected.)

Now the president or his counterpart will have to travel at great expense in both money and wasted time, to have a private conversation. The Democrats’ pathological hatred of Mr. Trump will cost us billions of dollars over time, and will make conducting affairs of state immeasurably more difficult – and in some cases, to our detriment – impossible.

Not only did the faithless CIA employee leak classified information, but he also did not even have first-hand knowledge of the acts about which he complained, as is required by the whistleblower statute. He was not on the call, and he saw no transcript of the call. Someone who had sworn to protect this sensitive information told him their version of what transpired. This is the same kind of weasel move used by James Comey. He loudly proclaimed, “I am not a leaker!” in a Congressional hearing. But he was later forced to admit that he gave classified information to a friend to leak – with the express intent of forcing the appointment of a Special Prosecutor.

Both the Mueller investigation and the current “Impeachment Inquiry” have repeatedly violated the Sixth Amendment rights of our president – and therefore of the nation. While trampling on the rights of the president, his family, and his associates, the Democrats have hindered him in doing his job. He has done a magnificent job of maintaining his duties as president and advancing the nation’s interests. But there is no question that the repeated attacks have been at the very least a distraction from the work Americans overwhelmingly elected him to do, and have hurt our nation. Meanwhile, the Democrats have totally abandoned their duty to legislate. Instead their primary – indeed their sole – focus is on investigation, investigation, investigation.

The Sixth Amendment of our Constitution grants the immutable right to face one’s accuser, to cross-examine witnesses (implied), and “…to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.” This is the full wording of the Sixth:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

Every part of the Sixth Amendment has been violated in the Democrats' lust to overturn the 2016 election. The trial they are currently conducting is being held in secret because they know that if there is an actual impeachment trial in the Senate the Constitution will be obeyed and the truth will set Mr. Trump (and the nation) free from their partisan abuse of their offices and their political power.

There is no impartial jury. Only the Democrats can call witnesses, and, since they are in the majority, only they can impeach the president. Republicans can request that witnesses be called, but only Adam Schiff, one of the most corrupt politicians in Washington can approve them. And – according to Congressmen who have been allowed in the secret hearings – Schiff has repeatedly cut off Republicans’ questions or refused to allow them to ask them in the first place.

President Trump has not been “…informed of the nature and cause of the accusation.” The Democrats don’t even know themselves. They have floated various ridiculous conspiracy theories about supposed crimes committed by the president, but none of them are impeachable offenses. As of this date, they have not articulated one impeachable offense. Their “Impeachment Inquiry” – which is totally illegal, since it is not being conducted by the Judiciary Committee – is nothing more than a fishing expedition.

The president has not been given his right “…to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor,” as demanded by the Sixth Amendment. And the Democrats have repeatedly refused him his right “…to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense” present at their secret hearings.

Everyone has heard about double jeopardy. A person cannot be tried again for a crime of which he has already been acquitted. How about quadruple jeopardy? The full House of Representatives has voted on whether to impeach this president three times (on December 6, 2017, January 19, 2018, and July 17, 2019). The House voted not to impeach him every time. Now Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi are trying for a fourth time to impeach him. When will enough be enough?

President Trump has committed an unforgivable offense in the minds of Democrats – he beat Hillary Clinton, who made no secret of how much she despised half of America. “They’re what I call the basket of deplorables…the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it,” she stated at a fundraiser. She also claimed that it was unfortunate that Trump had given these ‘deplorables’ a voice, citing “offensive mean-spirited rhetoric” on websites and Twitter. “Some of those folks — they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.” So, Hillary, if they agree with you and call Trump and his supporters racists and worthless, they are “America.” But if they support Trump they are bigoted deplorables, and shouldn’t be allowed to have a voice in her America.

It is now almost certain that if the Democrats hold a fourth impeachment vote, it will pass with almost every Democrat voting yea and every Republican voting nay. And it is absolutely certain that the Senate will vote to acquit, since the Democrats’ only complaint is that they hate him and he beat Hillary.

So why are they going forward with this charade? They know that none of their current candidates can beat Trump. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg says he doesn’t think Biden can win, so he’s considering stepping into the race. The only problem is that he doesn’t know who he is. He has been a Republican, then an Independent, and – at least for the time being – he is a Democrat. They may even have to drag Hillary up from the basement, dust her off, and let her run another disastrous campaign against a very successful sitting president.

Their only hope is to damage President Trump with this impeachment folly. The chances of that happening are somewhere between 0 and -1. But they are desperately desperate. The idea of Trump serving the nation for another four years, improving the economy, increasing the United States’ stature on the world stage, and demolishing more terrorists is absolutely repugnant to them. They would rather see Ronald Reagan (who was their most hated Conservative until Trump) come back to life and win the presidency.

So, fear not, Patriots. The Republic is safe. Most Americans are not even paying attention to the impeachment drama. And those who are – even the Democrats – know it is not motivated by any sense of wrong-doing on the part of the president that must be addressed, but rather by hatred, vengeance, and vindictiveness.


INTERNET RESEARCH:

Comey Signed FISA Applications Using the Same Dossier He Publically Called ‘Salacious and Unverified’

FISA Courts are Unconstitutional

Trump Impeachment Inquiry Deeply Flawed and Unfair – Hearings Should Be Public

Six Ways the Salem Witch Trials Were More Fair than Democrats’ Impeachment Inquiry