Preet Bharara takes down Lindsey Graham's 'silly' complaints about the impeachment process

On Thursday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara demolished the stunt resolution from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) claiming that the impeachment proceedings violate President Donald Trump's rights.

"As you know, Graham is arguing that President Trump's right to due process is being violated by this House impeachment inquiry," said anchor Wolf Blitzer. "From the legal perspective, how strong is Graham's argument?"

"It's not strong. It's very weak," said Bharara, who previously ran SDNY. "And frankly, Lindsey Graham knows better, and I don't know quite what he's talking about. There has been no article of impeachment drafted, there has been no article of impeachment filed, there has been no vote on an article of impeachment. What's happening now is a process by which evidence is being developed to see what, if any, articles of impeachment are appropriate and pertinent later."

"I mean, people like me get on TV all the time, and we say that a lot of the investigatory mechanisms of Congress, when done in open hearings, are circus-like and don't develop the truth at all, because you have five-minute rounds where people ask questions and they're posturing for the cameras," continued Bharara. "And we've often said that the way that this should be done better is by, as an initial matter, having professional staff in conference rooms, take depositions under oath, and develop the evidence, and then you have public hearings."

"In fact, it's not just something that people like me say on television, it's something that people like me did when they worked in the Congress," said Bharara. "I was on the Senate Judiciary Committee as a chief counsel when Lindsey Graham was on the committee ... and his staff participated in exactly these kinds of depositions and investigations that I personally led. And then later, you release the deposition, you release all the transcripts. By the way, during those depositions, the other party has staff and possibly members who can ask questions and defend the record and make whatever points they want to make, and then later the public hearings that don't waste everyone's time. So the idea that at this stage, that there's any due process violation is kind of silly."

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