Suggested statement for Sen. Jones

SUGGESTED STATEMENT FOR SENATOR JONES TO ISSUE RE IMPEACHMENT

The House of Representatives has not yet transmitted their articles of impeachment to the United States Senate, and no trial in the Senate has yet begun. Further my role will be as a juror in the Senate trial.

I am issuing this statement at this time because I think my juror role partakes of representing the people of Alabama, and they should be informed about my thinking about the impeachment and the reasons that I have for the way I vote in the Senate trial.

There is already known evidence that will be relevant in the trial, and additional relevant evidence may become known in the trial.

The impeachment has brought to the fore important matters about our nation's governance, which should be emphasized for Alabamians to have in their understanding of the impeachment.

These matters include, and I think Alabamians understand, that public officials are supposed to serve the public interest and not wrongfully serve their personal interests, and that applies to the POTUS.

Also I think Alabamians understand that, under the constitution, we have a system of separation of powers, in which there are checks and balances.

In the system, Congress, as the legislative branch, makes the laws, the President is the head of the executive branch, which carries out the laws, and the judicial branch interprets the laws.

In the system's checks and balances, Congress does oversight of the executive branch, including  investigating how its laws are being carried out by the executive branch and whether, under the law, something is done wrongfully by the President or others in the executive branch.

As regards the Ukraine, there is evidence that the POTUS wrongfully put his personal political interests ahead of the national interests of the United States.

Judging wrongfulness in the case of the Ukraine entails determining the facts about what was done and determining what the motive of the POTUS was for what he did and had others do.

Wrongfulness comes in degrees, and a motive can be a real or a pretext motive, and there can also be mixed motives.

As a juror in the Senate trial, and in deciding whether to vote to convict or not, I intend, based on the evidence, to come to a judgment about whether the POTUS wrongfully put his personal political interests ahead of United States national interest, and, if so, the degree of the wrongfulness. This judgment will depend on further judgment that I intend to make about the motive of the POTUS in doing what he did and had others do.

I solicit from Alabamians to convey to me what they think about whether the POTUS acted wrongfully, and, if so, what Alabaminas think about the degree of the wrongfulness, including what they think the motive of the POTUS was in doing what he did or had others do.