Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, introduces Republican presidential candidate former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush during a Presidential candidate forum with Rev. Pat Robertson, right, at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., Friday, Oct. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

During the impeachment trial, House Intel Chair Adam Schiff, the primary House impeachment manager, was clearly upset that Trump defense team pointed a finger to what they called a real quid pro quo: the conversation that Barack Obama was overheard having with the president of Russia at the time, Dimitri Medvedev that was caught on hot mic, the infamous “I’ll be more flexible after the election” to which Medvedev responded, “I’ll transmit that to Vladimir [Putin, the real power behind Medvedev].”

Schiff said that wasn’t the appropriate analogy. He then went into his complete parody mode, again making things up out of whole cloth.

Schiff presents hypothetical scenario to senators: Obama asks Russian prime minister to announce investigation into opponent Mitt Romney in return for aid.

"Do any of us have any question that Barack Obama would be impeached for that kind of misconduct?" https://t.co/esubYC6OT8 pic.twitter.com/fhJl1gT7eM

— ABC News (@ABC) January 29, 2020

Schiff said that the more appropriate analogy was this. “President Obama, on an open mic, says to Medvedev, ‘Hey, Medvedev — I know you don’t want me to send this military money to Ukraine because they’re fighting and killing your people. I want you to do me a favor, though, I want you to do an investigation of Mitt Romney. And I want you to announce you found dirt on Mitt Romney. And if you’re willing to do that, quid pro quo, I won’t give Ukraine the money they need to fight you on the front lines.’ Do any of us have any question that Barack Obama would be impeached for that kind of misconduct?”

But, of course, that’s not the analogy and it’s a pretty despicable effort on the part of Schiff to suggest it is. First, he includes Russia, as though to suggest that Trump withheld aid at the behest of Russia, again stoking the debunked Russia collusion hoax. He says “do me a favor” instead of do the United States a favor as Trump said. The “favor” wasn’t investigating the Bidens, it was looking into the question of what happened with the DNC server in 2016 because of rumors about Ukraine having information on that. Trump never asked Zelensky for an investigation into the Bidens. As the transcript shows, he asked only to see if the case against the Bidens/Burisma was properly dismissed because of Joe Biden’s claim that he had the prosecutor fired. And that request was not conditioned on any aid being cut loose. The aid was released on time and Ukraine was never without it. And the president of Ukraine confirmed there was never any quid pro quo.

This wasn’t the first time that Schiff had mischaracterized the evidence.

But Jay Sekulow finished Schiff off completely when he had his chance.

This 👇👇👇

If you're talking about foreign-solicited dirt to start sham investigations into your political rivals look no further than…the DEMOCRATS and Obama's FBI!

And it's not a hypothetical! pic.twitter.com/EGukzBhRpz

— Elizabeth Harrington (@LizRNC) January 29, 2020

“Manager Schiff said it would be wrong if the FBI or the DOJ was starting a political investigation of someone’s political opponent. And I’m thinking to myself, but isn’t that exactly what happened? The Department of Justice and the FBI engaged in an investigation of the candidate for president of the United States when they started their operation called Crossfire Hurricane. He said it would be targeting a rival, well, that’s what that did. He said it would be calling for foreign assistance in that. Well, in the particular facts of Crossfire Hurricane, it’s been well established now that Fusion GPS utilized the services of a former foreign intelligence officer, Christopher Steele, to put together a dossier. And that Steele relied on his network of sources around the world including Russia and other places to put together this dossier which then James Comey said was ‘unverified and salacious’ but yet it was the basis on which the Department of Justice and the FBI obtained FISA warrants. This was in 2016 against a rival campaign.”

“So we don’t have to do hypotheticals,” Sekulow finished. “That’s precisely the situation.”

Exactly, and the Democrats – the DNC and the Clinton team were behind the funding of Fusion GPS and Steele to undermine their opponent, in an unprecedented effort, effectively using the government to help undermine their opponent and undermining him through the media as well.

HT: Twitchy