There has been some misinformation about how a Second Impeachment of President Donald J Trump might be accomplished before the end of Trump’s term which expires in 12 days. Said misinformation includes the false premise that an Impeachment by the House, or an Impeachment Trial in the Senate, cannot proceed once the office holder has resigned or been replaced. That’s not true, and there’s historical precedent: see Ulysses Grant’s Secretary of War, William Belknap. Please read it. It’s short.
Now, you will note that Belknap was both Impeached by the House and tried in the Senate after he resigned — before the Impeachment was to be voted on in the House.
This is not to say that our current House leadership should take their time to bring charges for the crime Trump committed two days ago. Indeed, they should have already mustered a committee to begin a hearing on the matter, and the Articles of Impeachment should by now already be in second or third draft form, and should include both the incitement on the Mall of January 6, 2021, and the attempted extortion and criminal threatening of the GA SoS for the expressed purposes of suborning electoral fraud, a crime that occurred just 4 days earlier. Both crimes were borne out of the same scheme, to disenfranchise the American electorate in the selection of President in 2020.
Also, both crimes were recorded: on video tape on the Mall and on audio tape from the phone call to Secretary Raffensperger. These Articles need not, indeed should not, be long-winded or complex. These are not eyes-glazing or hair-splitting narratives. The publicly-viral and universally-decried recorded documents make the case by themselves, and the seditionist actions of the MAGA mob directly following Trump’s incitement of just a few blocks way on the 6th, are burned into the history books already; it will be decades before the stench of that burning subsides. These abhorrant actions are replete with organized-criminal behavior that were the direct, outflowing results of Trump’s depredations against the very foundations of our democracy — as well as against each of us, all of us, even against his own allies (despite their purposefully obtuse refusal to absorb that truth).
The fact that Trump is seriously considering a blanket self-pardon makes the necessity of House Impeachment action all the more urgent: the only legal action that can nullify a Presidential pardon is Impeachment.
Of course, there is plenty of good legal argument being made that a self-pardon is not legally possible, but why risk that question being decided by a court system that has been stacked in favor of the criminal in question who will, most likely, pardon himself anyway. He will do it in the calculating hope that prospective prosecutors will avoid having to deal with that question? Not a bad bet, I’d say. Impeach this heinous despot, and then let those who colluded with him in the Senate face history’s ignominy as they contemplate whether to convict him this time around. Let Susan Collins convince enough of her co-conspirators to, against their craven natures, do the right thing this time.
One more note, reiterating the Belknap point above: the Senate Trial for the Impeachment of Donald J Trump need not conclude before Trump is out of office (again, see the link above). It need not even begin before that point. By January 22, the aforementioned GA SoS Raffensperger will be required to have certified Senators-elect Warnock and Ossoff. It makes no sense, actually, to have begun the trial before all Senators of the 117th Congress are seated. This was done on the 117th’s watch, after all.
Finally, here’s a great essay about the Constitutional basis for the arguments I’m making above. Please read it. It’s by this very impressive guy.