Even if the process cannot be completed before Inauguration Day, a second impeachment is a necessity. Its principal goal would be to disqualify Trump from ever holding federal office again. It would also take from him the many perks (financial and otherwise) that are given to "former Presidents" under the 1958 Former Presidents Act. He would, however, continue to have Secret Service protection under a 2012 amendment to that act.
Normally, when we think of impeachment, we envision the removal of an official from office. But under Article I, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, judgments in cases of impeachment extend not only to removal, but also to future disqualification.
As I have written elsewhere, there is no legal bar to trying Trump in the Senate on a new article of impeachment after January 20. In 1876, the Senate conducted an impeachment trial of Secretary of War William Belknap even though he had resigned before the House voted to impeach him for financial corruption.
While Richard Nixon was able to escape impeachment via resignation, the current House and Senate, now controlled by the Democrats, would not be bound by the Nixon example. Both chambers would be free instead to follow the Belknap precedent in the case of impeaching a former President, as several leading constitutional scholars have indicated in interviews with the Washington Post in 2019. Impeachable offenses, moreover, are not subject to the President's pardon power.
Given the growing sense of shame and disaffection in the ranks of the GOP, Trump should expect a full Senate trial in his second impeachment, in sharp contrast to the perfunctory acquittal he received in his first impeachment.
Witnesses would be called. Evidence would be presented. The whole world would watch as Trump and the fascism he has promoted are put on display.
No federal official in American history has ever been impeached twice. But Trump has always prided himself as being a norm-buster, and no American President has ever deserved harsher treatment.
No federal official in American history has ever been impeached twice.
A second impeachment would be a fitting conclusion to Trump's defilement of the presidency. Better still, if we maintain our vigilance and continue to press for accountability, a second impeachment could also be a prelude to future federal and state criminal prosecutions of Trump and his principal enablers.
We haven't a moment to lose.
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