- Drew Berquist - https://www.drewberquist.com -

The Latest On The New Trump Impeachment

Democrats moved to impeach President Trump on Monday. But he will he out of office before a trial can be conducted in the Senate. That’s fine with them because the real aim is Article 1, section 3, clause 7 of the United States Constitution.

“Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.” That’s where they are going.

Can they do it, convict after Trump leaves office? Is there any precedent? Dr. Tim Blessing, “Not in the US. Blount got off and Belknap had a majority of the Senate vote to convict him but not the two-thirds. Obviously, though, a majority of the Senators in 1876 believed they could vote to convict someone not in office. Precedent counts for less, I suspect, than emotion in this case.”

 

The article of impeachment, which will be voted on Wednesday, reads as follows:

“In his conduct while President of the United States—and in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States, and to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, Donald John Trump engaged in high Crimes and Misdemeanors by inciting violence against the Government of the United States,” the article reads.

FNC: “The article alleges that before Jan. 6, the joint session of Congress to certify the presidential election results, Trump ‘repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the presidential election results were the product of widespread fraud and should not be accepted by the American people or certified by State or Federal officials.’ The article claims that before the Jan. 6 joint session the president addressed a crowd in Washington where he “reiterated false claims that ‘we won this election, and we won it by a landslide,’ and “willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged–and forseeably resulted in–lawless action at the Capitol.’ ”

It refers to Trump’s statement: “If you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Article of impeachment: “Thus incited by President Trump, members of the crowd he had addressed, in an attempt to, among other objectives, interfere with the Joint Session’s solemn constitutional duty to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, unlawfully breached and vandalized the Capitol, injured and killed law enforcement personnel, menaced Members of Congress, the Vice President and Congressional personnel, and engaged in other violent, deadly, destructive, and seditious acts.” Trump’s conduct “followed his prior efforts to subvert and obstruct the certification of the 2020 Presidential election. “In all this, President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government.” He “betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Donald John Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.”