I watched virtually the entire impeachment trial of President Trump. The House managers seemed to make a compelling case that the president abused the power of his office. The president’s counsel denied that he did anything wrong; they claimed that the entire impeachment was a political charade cooked up by the Democrats in the House.

I am an American and Ohioan who needs, and has the right, to know the truth. I depended on the Senate to make sure that I got the factual information on which I could draw informed conclusions. That seemed prudent at the time since its members have all sworn an oath to defend the constitution, and specifically in the case of the impeachment trial to “do impartial justice”.

When it came to the opportunity to subpoena relevant documents and witnesses with direct knowledge of the facts of the impeachment case however, Senator Portman implemented some kind of personal political calculus. He voted to violate his oath and my rights and interests. Instead he chose to support a potentially corrupt president’s effort to suppress the likely evidence of his abusive behavior and subvert the constitutional separation of powers. Senator Portman chose to protect the accused president over his constitutional duty and his constituents’ right to know the whole truth.

We should remember Senator Portman’s violation of his Senatorial duty, his oath of office, and contempt for the constitution and its separation of powers in 2022 when he is up for re-election.