Former Acting DNI Richard Grenell Says Impeachment Process Now a ‘Political Weapon’

Richard Grenell at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, on May 31, 2019. Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images

Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell has said the Democrats’ impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump is “politicizing” a serious government institution.

He called the current impeachment trial an “unserious process” that isn’t being presided over by a Supreme Court justice, setting a precedent for Republicans to use the same stunt for their own political gain.

“What the democrats have successfully done is politicized yet another Washington D.C. institution and it will damage our democracy by politicizing the process once again,” Grenell told The Epoch Times’ American Thought Leaders program on Tuesday.

Grenell said that House and Senate Democrats have moved impeachment—a fundamental constitutional power of Congress meant to provide checks and balances on power—from a “serious process into just a political weapon.”

“And they should not be surprised in the future when it is used by Republicans as exactly that: a political weapon,” he said.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the president pro tempore of the Senate, who is presiding over the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, swears in members of the Senate for the impeachment trial at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 26, 2021. Senate Television via AP

Grenell, who was the first openly homosexual individual to serve in a cabinet role in U.S. history, was appointed by Trump in February 2020 and served until May.

He said the lack of a Supreme Court justice presiding over the impeachment trial demonstrates how the process has become “political” and “unserious.”

“This is literally the ... weaponization of government,” he said, adding that it has been a consistent tactic of the Democrats.

“They’ve done this to the intelligence community. They’ve done this to the IRS. They’ve done this to the Justice Department, and now they’re trying to weaponize impeachment,” he said.

‘Zero Chance’ of Trump Conviction

Then-President Donald Trump greets the crowd at the "Stop The Steal" rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Grenell said he believes there is “zero chance” the Democrats will be able to convict Trump, while noting that the former president during his Jan. 6 speech had called on the crowd to be “peaceful.”

This evidence, he argues, is being ignored by many politicians and their staffers who “fail to do basic research or ignore basic facts” as well as many media outlets, Grenell said.

“When you look at what President Trump said in his speech, he said peaceful protests’ he instructed the crowd to be peaceful,” Grenell said. “The fact that the mainstream media refuse to play that video for the public is so obviously political.”

Grenell has been heavily critical of legacy media and social media’s censorship of conservative voices. In a recent post on Twitter, he questioned the social media giant for its suspension of Republican Devin Nunes’ account, asking “Why does this never happen to Democrats @Twitter?”